Progressive Matters

The National Press Club Welcomes ... Jeff Gannon?

2005-03-29T17:08:00.000+09:00

The National Press Club Welcomes ... Jeff Gannon?
Editor & Publisher

NEW YORK Jeff Gannon is back -- at the National Press Club?
Yes, the same day that the prestigious Washington, D.C., journalism organization plans to present a lunch talk by former Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee, it will also allow the former White House reporter/sex site operator to be on a panel discussing bloggers and online journalism.
Gannon, whose real name is James Guckert, resigned his job with the conservative Talon News last month after it was revealed he had used a pseudonym, had little journalism background, and had ties to male escort Web sites.
Still, Press Club leaders will include Gannon on the panel April 8 that includes Wonkette.com editor Ana Marie Cox, National Journal's John Stanton, and others.
Gannon told E&P today that he always considered himself a legitimate journalist, and "perhaps their invitation is recognition of that."
...
Gannon's ability to gain access to regular daily White House briefings, despite not being able to obtain a permanent "hard pass" or a congressional press pass, sparked new discussions among reporters and White House staff about who should be granted regular access.

Policy of Prohibiting Political Marches Along Fifth Avenue

2005-03-29T16:54:00.000+09:00

Center for Constitutional Rights Files Lawsuit Challenging City’s Policy of Prohibiting Political Marches Along Fifth Avenue
Center For Constitutional Rights

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a complaint on behalf of the International Action Center and the Troops Out Now Coalition on Wednesday March 16 challenging the City’s policy of refusing new permits for marches on Fifth Avenue. CCR called for a reversal of the policy and for the City to allow the march this weekend to proceed on Fifth Avenue, arguing that the City is silencing dissent by refusing permits for demonstrations on Fifth Avenue.

One Big Prison

2005-03-29T16:49:00.001+09:00

One Big Prison: New Report Warns Against Continued Strangulation of Gaza Strip after Disengagement
B'Tselem

Israel has cut off the Gaza Strip from the rest of the world to such an extent that it is easier for Palestinians in Israel or the West Bank to visit relatives in prison than visit a relative in Gaza. This is one conclusion of the 100-page report that B’Tselem and HaMoked publish today. One Big Prison documents the ongoing violations of human rights and international law resulting from Israel’s restrictions on the movement of people and goods between Gaza and the West Bank, Israel, and the rest of the world. The report also warns against Israel’s attempt to avoid its responsibility toward residents of the Gaza Strip following disengagement.
Despite the easing of restrictions that Israel declared following the Sharm el-Sheikh summit in February 2005, there has been almost no improvement in the movement of Palestinians to and from Gaza, nor in the movement of goods. The report illustrates the extent to which Israel treats many fundamental human rights – among them the right to freedom of movement, family life, health, education, and work – as “humanitarian gestures” that it grants or denies at will.
Report Highlights:
As a result of the economic siege on Gaza, more than 77 percent of Gazans (1,033,500 people) now live below the poverty line - almost double the number before the intifada. Some 23 percent of Gazans (over 323,000 people) are in “deep poverty,” meaning that they do not reach the subsistence poverty line even after receiving aid from international agencies.
The forced isolation of Gaza tears many Palestinians from their families, and in some cases even separates spouses. The report includes the testimonies of a woman whose husband was expelled from the West Bank to Gaza, and of a mother whose son has never seen his father.
Almost all the restrictions on movement are imposed on entire categories of people, based on sweeping criteria, without checking if the individual poses a security risk, and without weighing the harm the person will suffer, or if less harmful alternatives are available. In most cases, where Israel denies a permit and human rights organizations intervene, Israel reverses its decision to avoid an embarrassing legal challenge.
Most components of the policy of strangulation are illegal under international and Israeli law.
The strangulation of the Gaza Strip increased following Palestinian attacks against civilians in Israel and the Occupied Territories over the past few years. Targetting civilians is a “war crime” and never justified. Israel is entitled, even obligated, to protect its citizens. However, Israel’s right to self-defense does not permit it to trample on the rights of an entire population.

No Legal Settlements

2005-03-29T16:44:00.000+09:00

Not Legal Settlements
B'Tselem

Since 1967, Israel has established in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip 152 settlements that have been recognized by the Interior Ministry. In addition, dozens of outposts of varying size have been established. Some of these outposts are settlements for all intents and purposes, but the Interior Ministry has not recognized them as such.
Israel has established in the Occupied Territories a separation cum discrimination regime, in which it maintains two systems of laws, and a person’s rights are based on his or her national origin. This regime is the only of its kind in the world, and brings to mind dark regimes of the past, such as the Apartheid regime in South Africa.
As part of the regime, Israel has stolen thousands of dunams of land from the Palestinians, on which it established dozens of settlements in which hundreds of thousands of Israeli civilians now live. Israel forbids Palestinian to enter and use these lands, and use the settlements to justify numerous violations of Palestinian rights, such as the right to housing, to gain a living, and freedom of movement. The sharp change changes Israel made to the map of the West Bank makes a viable Palestinian state impossible as part of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.
The settlers, on the other hand, Benefit from all rights given to citizens of Israel who live inside the Green Line, and in some instances, ever additional rights. The great effort Israel has expended in the settlement enterprise – financially, legally, and bureaucratically – has turned the settlements into civilian enclaves within an area under military rule, and has given the settlers a preferred status. to perpetuate this unlawful situation, Israel has continuously violated the Palestinians’ human rights.

Ecuador: Threats and violence against government critics increases

2005-03-29T16:41:00.000+09:00

Ecuador: Threats and violence against government critics increases
Amnesty International

It has become commonplace in Ecuador for journalists, civil activists and opposition politicians to be threatened, harassed or subjected to violent attacks. Outspoken individuals regularly reported receiving death threats throughout 2004 and many more threats may remain unreported.
Since December, however, the situation has deteriorated further, with civil society in Ecuador becoming more polarised following the actions of the country's Congress. In an extraordinary session called by the President, Congress removed 27 of the 31 judges sitting on the Supreme Court of Justice and nominated replacements, a move that triggered serious concerns over the independence of the judiciary.
Intimidation of critics has escalated since then. On 25 January, Orlando Pérez Torres, a journalist for Hoy (Today) newspaper who has written articles criticising the President and members of the judiciary was threatened at gunpoint. Mr Torres, who is also a professor at the Universidad de las Américas (University of the Americas) in the capital Quito, was walking to the university when two men approached him and pushed him against a wall. One of them put a gun to his stomach and said: "Deja de joder, de fastidiar, de escribir pendejadas, sino te vamos a matar" ("Stop f**king bothering writing bulls**t or you will get killed").

ACLU Demands that Florida Police Turn Over ‘Spy Files’ on Local Protesters

2005-03-29T16:38:00.000+09:00

ACLU Demands that Florida Police Turn Over ‘Spy Files’ on Local Protesters
American Civil Liberties Union

MELBOURNE, FL - The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and six protesters targeted as "persons of interest" by local police today filed public records requests demanding that the Melbourne Police Department and Brevard County Sheriff Office turn over surveillance files kept on demonstrators who attended a counter inaugural protest earlier this year.
"We’ve learned that peaceful protesters in Melbourne can’t attend a rally in Brevard County without fear that their names will wind up in a criminal intelligence file," said Kevin Aplin, Vice President of the ACLU of Florida’s Brevard County Chapter. "Brevard Police need to learn that a public gathering where individuals peacefully criticize government policy is not criminal activity; on the contrary, it is activity that is protected by the United States Constitution."

Army’s Own Documents Acknowledge Evidence That Soldiers Used Torture

2005-03-29T16:34:00.000+09:00

Army’s Own Documents Acknowledge Evidence That Soldiers Used Torture
American Civil Liberities Union

NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union today charged that the government is attempting to bury the torture scandal involving the U.S. military by failing to comply with a court order requiring release of documents to the ACLU. The documents the government does release are being issued in advance to the media in ways calculated to minimize coverage and public access, the ACLU said.
The reason for the delay in delivering the more than 1,200 pages of documents was evident, the ACLU said, in the contents, which include reports of brutal beatings, "exercise until exhaustion" and sworn statements that soldiers were told to "beat the fuck out of" detainees. One file cites evidence that Military Intelligence personnel in Iraq "tortured" detainees held in their custody.
"These documents provide further evidence that the torture of detainees was much more widespread than the government has acknowledged," said ACLU attorney Jameel Jaffer. "At a minimum, the documents indicate a colossal failure of leadership."

The Cavernous Divide

2005-03-29T16:26:00.000+09:00

The Cavernous Divide
Alternet

It was a good year for the global billionaires' club. Their ranks grew to 691, up 17 percent from the previous year. Collectively, the wealth of the world's billionaires reached $2.2 trillion, up more than 57 percent over the last two years.
Poverty is growing as well. Time reports that nearly half of the world's 6 billion residents are poor. Over one billion of them subsist on less than $1 a day. In the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of impoverished Americans rose 3.7 percent in 2003. The number of children living in poverty rose 6.6 percent.
...
Tax rates have fallen on upper-income citizens and corporations worldwide. Fifty years ago in the United States, the highest marginal income tax rate was 91 percent; today it is 34 percent. As recently as 1979, taxes on capital gains from the sale of stock, real estate and businesses were 35 percent; today they are 15 percent. Corporate taxes as a percentage of the U.S. economy have shrunk from 4.1 percent of Gross Domestic Product in 1965 to just 1.5 percent in 2002. While corporate taxes have declined throughout the world, they have plummeted in the United States, leaving only Iceland among industrialized countries with a lower corporate tax burden.
Several of the wealthiest billionaires capitalized on public assets and made their fortunes by buying formerly public assets. This was the case with Mexican Carlos Slim Helu, the world's fourth richest man, who used inherited wealth to buy a substantial share of Mexico's privatized national telephone company. U.S. billionaires Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer of Microsoft, and Larry Ellison of Oracle would not be in Forbes' top 20 billionaires had the U.S. government not invested tens of billions of public dollars developing computers and the internet.
Some billionaires' fortunes rest upon paying their employees poverty wages. Such is the case for the Walton family (numbers 10 through 14 on the Forbes list.) Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in the world. Many of its U.S. workers are so poorly paid that they must rely on food stamps and other forms of public assistance to get by. Such forms of government aid represent an indirect government subsidy to corporations whose business model does not include paying employees enough to live on. Worldwide, billions are gained by outsourcing service, production and manufacturing functions to workers who labor in sweatshop conditions in countries like China.

Democratising Public Services

2005-03-29T16:05:00.000+09:00

Democratizing Public Services: Lessons from Other Jurisdictions and Implications for Health Care Reform in BC
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

[H]ealth care reform cannot be achieved by relying exclusively on the traditional mechanisms of governance available within liberal democracy: that is, representative government backed up by a hierarchically organized administrative structure. To effectively reform health care (and other public services) and to mobilize sufficient support for reforms in the face of opposition from entrenched interests, the forms of governance must, themselves, be democratized. This will require greater involvement of non-elite individuals and groups in governmental decision-making, as well as new ways of working within and between the public sector and the broader community.
The paper draws on four case studies where the evidence clearly shows that the skillful introduction of more participatory forms of governance increased the effectiveness and capacity for governments to introduce a more egalitarian distribution of societal resources. The four case studies are:
The Greater London Council, 1981 to 1986
Kerala, India, 1996 to present
Porto Alegre, Brazil, 1989 to present
Ceara, Brazil, 1989 to 1994
In all four examples, more participatory forms of governance increased the effectiveness, creativity, and competence of public sector systems by increasing the capacity of governments to do one or more of the following:
Provide citizens with new opportunities to monitor and direct government activities;
Extend the reach, competence and commitment of front-line staff within the public service;
Bring more experiential and practical forms of knowledge and expertise to the process of policy formation and implementation;
Increase the openness, transparency and accountability of decision-making within the administrative structures of government;
Address bottlenecks within the administrative agencies of government that could not be resolved internally; and
Ensure the durability of reforms beyond the mandate of the sitting government.

New Report Outlines Great Lakes Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture

2005-03-13T15:05:00.000+09:00

New Report Outlines Great Lakes Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture
Union of Concerned Scientists

Urbana—Agriculture in Illinois and the entire Great Lakes will be hurt by a changing climate, says a new report from the University of Illinois and the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). Changing precipitation patterns, more extreme rainfall events, rising ozone concentrations, and an increase in pests and pathogens will disrupt current farming practices throughout the region.
"Farmers in the region are already suffering from wetter spring and fall weather, and the intensity of rainstorms has also increased," says Michelle Wander, University of Illinois Associate Professor of soil fertility and co-author of Impacts on Agriculture: Our Region's Vital Economic Sector. "For farmers, these changes mean crop losses and higher costs."
...
The new report shows that by 2030, Illinois summers may resemble those of Oklahoma or Arkansas in terms of average temperature and rainfall. By the end of the century, however, the Illinois summer climate will generally resemble that of current east Texas. Maximum daily temperatures could rise by 5 to 12 degrees in winter and 5 to 20 degrees in summer in the Great Lakes region. Drought frequency will likely increase due to the combination of higher summer temperatures, evaporation, runoff from intense rainfall events and decline in summer precipitation.
Of serious concern, according to the report, are changing precipitation patterns. Crop production in the region is already suffering from problems related to both excess and insufficient moisture, and these problems will only worsen as climate change progresses.

Supreme Court of Canada refuses to hear dump appeals

2005-03-13T14:54:00.000+09:00

Supreme Court of Canada refuses to hear dump appeals
Canadian Environmental Law Association

The Supreme Court of Canada announced today that it would not hear appeals brought by the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte and concerned Tyendinaga Township residents.
The intended appeals challenged the legality of the environmental assessment process being used in relation to the proposed mega-expansion of the Richmond Landfill near Napanee.
In accordance with its usual practice, the Supreme Court of Canada did not provide any reasons for its refusal to hear the appeals.
"My clients are disappointed that the Supreme Court of Canada was unwilling to hear their appeal," stated Richard Lindgren, an environmental lawyer who represents Township residents. "However, I will be reviewing with my clients other legal options that may be available to challenge the proposed landfill expansion."
"In my opinion, the landfill expansion is unsound, unnecessary and unwanted by local residents and area municipalities," stated Stephen Geneja, spokesperson for the concerned residents. "The local citizens remain firmly opposed to the proposed expansion, and we will do everything in our power to stop it."

The multi-billion dollar trade that puts women in the firing line

2005-03-13T14:43:00.000+09:00

The multi-billion dollar trade that puts women in the firing line
Oxfam International

Women are paying an increasingly heavy price for the dangerously unregulated multi-billion-dollar trade in small arms according to a new report issued today on the eve of International Women's Day.
There are now estimated to be almost 650 million small arms in the worldtoday, mostly in the hands of men and nearly 60 percent of them in thehands of private individuals. Women and girls suffer directly andindirectly from armed violence:
An attack with a gun is 12 times more likely to end in death than anattack with any other weapon;
In South Africa, a woman is shot dead by a current or former partnerevery 18 hours;
In the USA, a gun in the home increases the risk that someone in thehousehold will be murdered by 41%; but increases the risk for women by272%;
In France and South Africa, one in three women killed by theirhusbands are shot; in the USA this rises to two in three;
Family killings are one category of homicides where women outnumbermen as victims with her partner or male relative the most likelymurderer.
... The report also examines a wide range of gun control measures adopted by states around the world usually as a result of the campaigns women are spearheading against gun violence.
Between 1995, when Canada tightened its gun laws, and 2003 the gun murder rate for women dropped by 40%;
Five years after the gun laws in Australia were overhauled in 1996, the gun murder rate for female victims had dropped by half;
Brazil has recently banned access to ownership of weapons before the age of 25 because young men and boys mostly perpetrate the massive level of gun violence.

New Guatemalan Law and Intellectual Property Provisions in DR-CAFTA Threaten Access to Affordable Medicines

2005-03-13T14:33:00.000+09:00

New Guatemalan Law and Intellectual Property Provisions in DR-CAFTA Threaten Access to Affordable Medicines
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières

Geneva/New York, 11 March 2005 - Following the recent passage in Guatemala of Decree 31-88 and the US-Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA), the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reiterated its concerns about their devastating impact on access to essential medicines in Guatemala and throughout the region.
"We fear that our ability to ensure sustainable access to treatment for our patients, particularly people with HIV/AIDS, will be severely affected," said Dr. Karim Laouabdia, Director of MSF's Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines.
...
"Paying more money for the exact same medicines means treating fewer people and, in effect, sentencing the rest to death," said Dr. Laouabdia. "We are especially worried that Decree 31-88 and intellectual property provisions in DR-CAFTA could make newer medicines unaffordable - our patients will need these in order to stay alive once their first-line regimen fails."

Rape and Sexual Violence Ongoing in Darfur

2005-03-13T14:31:00.000+09:00

Rape and Sexual Violence Ongoing in Darfur
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières

Amsterdam, 7 March 2005 –Women and girls in war-ravaged Darfur are continuing to suffer a high incidence of rape and sexual violence, according to a report issued today by Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). Stories of rape survivors told to MSF are a horrific illustration of the daily reality of the ongoing violence that has displaced almost two million people in Darfur.
Between October 2004 and mid-February 2005, MSF doctors in numerous locations in South and West Darfur treated almost 500 women and girls who were raped. MSF believes that these numbers reflect only a fraction of the total number of victims because many women are reluctant to report the crime or seek treatment. Almost a third (28%) of the rape survivors who sought treatment from MSF reported that they were raped more than once, either by single or multiple assailants. In more than half the cases, the rape was accompanied by additional physical abuse. Women told MSF that they were beaten with sticks, whips or axes before, during or after the act of rape. Some of the raped women were visibly pregnant, as much as five to eight months, at the time of the assault.
The majority of survivors of rape and sexual violence tell MSF that the attacks occurred when women left the relative safety of villages and displaced camps to carry out activities indispensable of the survival of the families, such as searching for firewood or water.
81% of the 500 rape survivors treated by MSF reported being assaulted by militia or military who used their weapons to force the assault. In Darfur, as in other conflicts, rape has been a regular and deliberate tool of war. It is used to destabilize and threaten a part of the civilian population, often a particular group.

No Evidence of a Malpractice Crisis

2005-03-13T14:26:00.000+09:00

No Evidence of a Malpractice Crisis
Association of Trial Lawyers of America

New study finds that despite huge rate increases from insurance companies there is no evidence of a medical malpractice crisis.
No Evidence of Malpractice Crisis
The American Medical Association (AMA) has claimed a "litigation explosion" has caused a crisis in medical malpractice. Texas is one of the AMA's "crisis" states. The three biggest insurers in the state have increased rates by an average of 135% over the last five years (1999-2003). However, data from the Texas Department of Insurance shows that the number of claims, the value of claims, and the rate of claims per physician have all remained constant or declined over the last decade.
Litigation and Claims Stable
Researchers from the University of Texas, the University of Illinois and Columbia University analyzed 15 years of closed claims data from the Texas Department of Insurance. They found "remarkable stability" in medical malpractice litigation and concluded that the massive insurance premium increases were driven by insurance industry dynamics, not claims.
Claims, Payouts, Awards, Rate of Claims - Stable or Dropping
Adjusting for population growth, the number of large claims (over $25,000) remained constant between 1991 and 2002.
When adjusting for the amount of health care spending or the number of doctors, the number of large claims dropped.
The percentage of claims that were considered large also remained constant.
The number of small claims dropped sharply.
Payouts and jury awards per claim remained constant or dropped.
The rate of claims per 100 Texas physicians dropped from 6.4 (1990-92) to 4.6 (2000-02).
Medical Malpractice Claims Only 0.6% of Health Care Spending
The study also found that medical malpractice was a tiny factor in health care costs. Total 2002 payouts were about 0.6% of total Texas health care spending. Medical malpractice claims made up only 10% of closed claims recorded by the Texas Department of Insurance.
Tort Limits Won't Prevent Insurance Crises
The researchers found little, if any, connection between insurance premiums and claims. Premiums have increased dramatically while claims have remained stable. Therefore, the researchers conclude, tort limits are "unlikely to prevent future insurance crises."

U.S. Chamber of Commerce's "Study" of State Liability Systems

2005-03-13T14:20:00.000+09:00

U.S. Chamber of Commerce's "Study" of State Liability Systems
Association of Trial Lawyers of America

Earth Shattering Study? Not Really
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce commissioned study of Corporate America's perceived fairness or reasonableness of the civil justice system is hardly a surprise.
The survey sought the opinions of senior corporate attorneys, those who work every day defending large corporations when they are sued by consumers or employees who have been injured or abused by the corporation.
The poll (by Harris Interactive, Inc.) is probably an accurate representation of opinions of in house defense attorneys working for large corporations with $100 million per year or more of revenue.
Wrongdoers Don't Like To Get Caught
A study isn't necessary to tell us that the attorneys working for Firestone are not happy with the legal system that holds Firestone accountable for the deaths and injuries caused by its tires. Similarly, any convicted criminal would say that the legal system doesn't work, and drivers who were punished for running a red light and causing an accident—or who were convicted of DUI—would likely also say the legal system treated them unfairly.
Survey the Victims
It would be more interesting and enlightening to annually survey people who were injured by Firestone tires, or Enron employees who were bilked out of their retirement funds. These people have only the civil justice system to rely upon to help them challenge decisions by multimillion dollar corporations that injure consumers, workers, and shareholders.
Because of our nation's legal system and the right to trial by jury, corporations can be held legally accountable when they physically or financially harm people. And the people who have been aided by the civil justice system—and as a result have forced corporations to make safer products and more responsible business decisions—would likely say the legal system works well. Ask the victims.

U.S. Strips Detainees of Key Protections

2005-03-13T13:58:00.000+09:00

U.S. Strips Detainees of Key Protections
Human Rights Watch

(New York, March 11, 2005) — The U.S. government’s decision to withdraw from a protocol governing diplomatic disputes has immediate consequences for the rights of foreigners detained in the United States and could endanger U.S. citizens who are detained abroad, Human Rights Watch said today.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) can hear disputes between countries who are parties to the Optional Protocol of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, including cases brought by states on behalf of people detained in foreign countries who have been denied access to their country’s consular officials.
According to a decision by the Bush administration this week, the ICJ, or World Court, will henceforth have no power to hear cases brought by countries on behalf of detained non-citizens in the United States. Americans in the custody of foreign countries who have been denied access to their country’s embassies will also not have access to the ICJ.
“This decision not only violates the rights of foreigners living in the United States, it could also endanger Americans abroad,” said Jamie Fellner, director of the U.S. program of Human Rights Watch. “It’s a huge mistake for the United States, for practical reasons as well as legal and moral ones.”
The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, a treaty which the United States ratified in 1969, requires governments to allow detained foreigners to meet with representatives of their embassies. The Optional Protocol to that treaty, also ratified by the United States, gives the ICJ jurisdiction over disputes under the treaty. Indeed it was the United States that proposed giving the ICJ such a role, during negotiations in 1963 to finalize the terms of the Optional Protocol.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice informed the United Nations this week that the United States is withdrawing from the Optional Protocol just days after President George W. Bush indicated to courts in Texas that they must abide by the ICJ’s Avena decision, which was made while the United States was still a party to the Optional Protocol. In that ruling, the ICJ told U.S. courts to hear the cases of 51 Mexican nationals on death row who were denied the right to talk to their consular officials...
In the past, the United States has used the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention to protect its citizens abroad. After 52 American hostages were taken in Iran in 1979, the United States sued Iran in the World Court using the protocol, and the court ruled in favor of the United States. Now, if an American overseas is arrested and not allowed access to U.S. consular officials in that country, the United States will not be able to hold that country accountable in the World Court.
The safeguards provided to foreigners in the United States are especially important in death penalty cases, where the stakes are particularly high. Foreign detainees are often ill-equipped to understand everything, from the laws and procedures used in the United States to the language spoken in the courtroom. Without consular advice, such detainees are likely to make decisions that undermine their defense; in the worst case scenario, the outcome may be a sentence of death.

No Legal Settlements

2005-03-13T13:51:00.000+09:00

No Legal Settlements
B'Tselem

Since 1967, Israel has established in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip 152 settlements that have been recognized by the Interior Ministry. In addition, dozens of outposts of varying size have been established. Some of these outposts are settlements for all intents and purposes, but the Interior Ministry has not recognized them as such.
Israel has established in the Occupied Territories a separation cum discrimination regime, in which it maintains two systems of laws, and a person’s rights are based on his or her national origin. This regime is the only of its kind in the world, and brings to mind dark regimes of the past, such as the Apartheid regime in South Africa.
As part of the regime, Israel has stolen thousands of dunams of land from the Palestinians, on which it established dozens of settlements in which hundreds of thousands of Israeli civilians now live. Israel forbids Palestinian to enter and use these lands, and use the settlements to justify numerous violations of Palestinian rights, such as the right to housing, to gain a living, and freedom of movement. The sharp change changes Israel made to the map of the West Bank makes a viable Palestinian state impossible as part of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.
The settlers, on the other hand,. Benefit from all rights given to citizens of Israel who live inside the Green Line, and in some instances, ever additional rights. The great effort Israel has expended in the settlement enterprise – financially, legally, and bureaucratically – has turned the settlements into civilian enclaves within an area under military rule, and has given the settlers a preferred status. to perpetuate this unlawful situation, Israel has continuously violated the Palestinians’ human rights.
Especially conspicuous is the Israel’s manipulative use of the law to create a semblance of legality for the settlement enterprise. So long as the Jordanian law assisted Israel in advancing its goals, it seized the argument that international law requires that an occupying state apply the law in effect in the territory prior to occupation, construing international law in a cynical and tendentious way. When Jordanian law was unfavorable for Israel, it did not hesitate to revoke it though military legislation and develop new rules ti meet its ends. In doing so, Israel tramples on international agreements to which it is party that are intended to reduce human rights violations and protect people under occupation.
In that the very establishment of the settlements is illegal, and in light of the human rights violations resulting from the existence of the settlements, B’Tselem demands that Israel evacuate the settlements. The action must be done in a way that respects the settlers’ human rights, including the payment of compensation.
Clearly, evacuation of the settlements will be complex, and will take time. However, there are intermediate steps that can be taken immediately so as to reduce, as far as possible, human rights violations and breach of international law. For example, the government should cease new construction in the settlements, whether to build new settlements or to expand existing settlements. It must also freeze the planning and building of new bypass roads, and must cease expropriating and seizing land intended for the bypass roads. The government must return to Palestinian villages all the non-built-up land that was placed within the municipal jurisdiction of the settlements and the regional councils, eliminate the planning boards in the settlements, and, as a result thereof, revoke the power of the local authorities to draw up outline plans and grant building permits. Also, the government must cease the granting of incentives to encourage Israeli citizens to move to settlements, and to make resources available to encourage settlers to move inside Israel’s borders.

ACLU Says New Detainee Report Does Not Absolve Senior Officials of Responsibility for Abuses

2005-03-13T13:33:00.000+09:00

ACLU Says New Detainee Report Does Not Absolve Senior Officials of Responsibility for Abuses
American Civil Liberties Union

WASHINGTON -- Despite aggressive claims to the contrary by the Defense Department, an investigation into detainee torture by American military personnel released today did not and likely could not have absolved senior-level Pentagon officials of responsibility for the widespread abuse of men and women in American military custody, the American Civil Liberties Union said.
"Military investigations can only look down," said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU Executive Director. "An impartial and comprehensive investigation of senior-level Pentagon officials would require the appointment of a special prosecutor by the attorney general."...
The only way criminal conduct by senior-level civilian officials at the Pentagon could be properly assessed, Romero said, is through the appointment of a special prosecutor by the attorney general. Without such an appointment, criminal conduct by civilian political appointees at the Pentagon will forever go unpunished.

U.S. infrastructure in disrepair

2005-03-13T13:26:00.000+09:00

Report Card for America's Infrastructure
American Society of Civil Engineers
Drinking Water:
America faces a shortfall of $11 billion annually to replace aging facilities and comply with safe drinking water regulations. Federal funding for drinking water in 2005 remained level at $850 million, less than 10% of the total national requirement. The Bush administration has proposed the same level of funding for FY06.
Energy (National Power Grid):
The U.S. power transmission system is in urgent need of modernization. Growth in electricity demand and investment in new power plants has not been matched by investment in new transmission facilities. Maintenance expenditures have decreased 1% per year since 1992. Existing transmission facilities were not designed for the current level of demand, resulting in an increased number of `bottlenecks' which increase costs to consumers and elevate the risk of blackouts.
Hazardous Waste:
Federal funding for `Superfund' cleanup of the nation's worst toxic waste sites has steadily declined since 1998, reaching its lowest level since 1986 in FY05. There are 1,237 contaminated sites on the National Priorities List, with possible listing of an additional 10,154. In 2003, there were 205 U.S. cities with `brownfields' sites awaiting cleanup and redevelopment. It is estimated that redevelopment of those sites would generate 576,373 new jobs and $1.9 billion annually for the economy.
Wastewater:
Aging wastewater management systems discharge billions of gallons of untreated sewage into U.S. surface waters each year. The EPA estimates that the nation must invest $390 billion over the next 20 years to replace existing systems and build new ones to meet increasing demands. Yet, in 2005, Congress cut funding for wastewater management for the first time in eight years. The Bush administration has proposed a further 33% reduction, to $730 million, for FY06.

“Wal-Mart amendment” would increase trucker hours, endanger motorists

2005-03-13T13:23:00.000+09:00

“Wal-Mart amendment” would increase trucker hours, endanger motorists
Public Citizen

Public safety advocates called on Congress today to defeat a measure being pushed by Wal-Mart and other retail and short-haul truckers that would extend truckers’ workdays to 16 hours – an excessively long day that research shows would lead to a dramatic increase in highway crashes. U.S. Rep. John Boozman (R-Ark.) plans to introduce the measure, H.R. 623, as an amendment to the highway bill tomorrow on the House floor.

Fool Me Twice? Chamber of Commerce Distorts NAFTA Record, Hides Cafta Costs

2005-03-13T13:03:00.000+09:00

Fool Me Twice? Chamber of Commerce Distorts NAFTA Record, Hides Cafta Costs
Public Citizen

In early 2005, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce released a study projecting possible gains to the United States and to several U.S. states’ economies from the proposed Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) NAFTA expansion. CAFTA would extend NAFTA to six additional countries: Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

In an eerie repeat of NAFTA promises from a decade earlier, the Chamber study claimed that, if implemented, CAFTA would create over 100,000 U.S. jobs, over $17 billion in increased sales and $3.5 billion in increased earnings for employees in all industries during its first nine years. The study also made specific mention of projected CAFTA gains for the state economies of California, Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, and Texas. Regarding these states, the report made a variety of glowing predictions of CAFTA benefits. Given that CAFTA would expand NAFTA to six additional countries – including the expansion of NAFTA’s foreign investment provisions that incentivize relocation of production to lower-waged countries – the notion that CAFTA would create U.S. jobs or economic gains seems dubious on its face.
An examination of the methodology and assumptions underlying the Chamber study’s predictions about CAFTA’s effect on both the national and state economies reveal that, in fact, the very design of this “study” ensures that the Chamber’s conclusions would be wildly inaccurate. First of all, the Chamber study assumes that U.S. imports from Central America would not grow under a CAFTA – a dangerous and misguided assumption, out of line with the historical record under NAFTA and other U.S. trade agreements. Secondly, to create a scenario under which CAFTA could benefit the U.S. economy, the Chamber study must assume a growth in U.S. exports to Central American countries which goes far beyond these poor countries’ consumption capacity. According to the study’s assumptions, by 2013, U.S. exports to Honduras would comprise 80 percent of that country’s economy. Finally, the Chamber study repeatedly misrepresents facts about the history of U.S. job loss due to NAFTA and corporate globalization more generally...

Top earners get Social Security windfall, others get the bill

2005-03-13T12:59:00.000+09:00

Top earners get Social Security windfall, others get the bill
Economic Policy Institute

Under the Federal Insurance Contribution Act (FICA), Social Security taxes are collected on individual earnings up to a maximum earnings level, set for this year at $90,000. The maximum level increases each year, moving up as average earnings increase. Since 1983, roughly 6% of earners have made above the maximum taxable earnings; because the earnings of this group grew faster than the average American's did, however, their share of all earnings grew from 25.5% in 1983 to 29.9% in 2001. Consequently, the share of earnings above the maximum--the amount earned free of the FICA tax--increased from 10% to more than 15% of all earnings. That is, the highest earners have gotten substantially better off, and their windfall has all been free of Social Security tax.
The argument goes that, because Social Security benefits are also capped, earnings shouldn't be taxed beyond the point where benefits stop increasing. It could also be argued, however, that all other workers are required to pay on 100% of their earnings to receive their benefits, as the approximately 94% of Americans earning below the maximum earnings level have done over the last 22 years. But the best-off 6% of Americans have been taxed at a much lower effective rate. They paid Social Security taxes on 60% of their earnings in 1983, for example, but on only 50% by 2001. That means that $305 billion in earnings went untaxed for the Social Security trust fund in 1983. The amount of untaxed earnings had increased to $775 billion by 2001 (in 2004 dollars) which if fully taxed would be a loss of revenue in 2001 of around $96 billion. Medicare, which is funded similarly, does not have a cap on taxable earnings.
While President Bush has declared the Social Security trust fund to be in crisis, we have perversely lowered the tax burden for the highest-earning 6% of America. Maybe that's why Americans strongly support taxing earnings above the maximum for Social Security.

Finding the Way Forward—A Negotiated Settlement in Iraq

2005-03-13T12:47:00.000+09:00

Finding the Way Forward—A Negotiated Settlement in Iraq
Foreign Policy In Focus

It is now time for the United States to pursue the one policy option that has been missing from the national discussion of Iraq: the negotiation of a peace settlement with the insurgents that would involve the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops in return for the surrender of the insurgents and the reintegration of the Sunni region into the post-Saddam political system.
In recent weeks there have been multiple indications that some insurgent leaders as well as some in the election-winning United Iraqi Alliance are actively interested in such a settlement. TIME revealed that certain insurgent leaders had met with U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers about a settlement under which they would surrender...
The Bush administration has long discouraged any thought about negotiations, portraying the Iraqi insurgency as a terrorist alliance between the foreign jihadists aligned with Osama Bin Laden and high-ranking Ba’athist security officials who seek to restore Saddam’s regime. That propaganda line misrepresents the actual composition and leadership of the insurgency. High ranking officers of Saddam’s elite security services did start the insurgency, and some of them may still harbor the dream of recreating the old regime. But the insurgency quickly evolved into something quite different.
During the last half of 2003, tens of thousands of young men, most of them former soldiers in the disbanded Iraqi army who could not get a job, joined the insurgency, not out of loyalty to Saddam but to drive out the occupation forces and to avenge the killing or mistreatment of family members or friends in U.S. “cordon and search” operations. By early 2004, the original Saddamist “Party of Return” was only one of more than 35 insurgent operations in Iraq.
Many of the local leaders of insurgent groups are clearly not Saddam loyalists but former mid-level officers from the security services, as noted recently by an adviser to the Pentagon on Iraq in The Washington Post. These young Ba’athists and the Sunni clerics who joined the resistance in 2004 are the insurgent leaders who are likely to be most interested in a peace settlement.

Seeing the United States as Others Do

2005-03-13T12:22:00.000+09:00

Global Security Challenges: Seeing the United States as Others Do
By Col. Daniel Smith (Ret.), Foreign Policy in Focus

Current leaders in Washington tend to see the world in black and white. For example, President George Bush has declared that there are only two categories for countries and individuals: “with us or against us,” and all those in the second category are considered terrorists or supporters of terror subject to “preventive” war with the time, place, and weapons determined by the U.S. president. What is wrong with this division is that the overwhelming majority of the earth’s people want nothing to do with either side. Their concerns are survival: food, water, health, and shelter, not terrorists...
But as U.S. intelligence directors confirmed in mid-February when they spoke before Congress, the formerly semistructured organization known as al-Qaida has devolved into an amorphous network of activists, sympathizers, and “imitators”--all of whom are regarded interchangeably as “jihadis,” extremists, or terrorists. Their numbers have multiplied since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq because, to quote CIA Director Goss, “The Iraq conflict, while not a cause of extremism, has become a cause for extremists.”
This polarization results from many Muslims viewing U.S. actions in Iraq as state terrorism and a Western jihad upon Islam, a perception that is not based on some “fundamentalist” misinterpretation of religion, as President Bush has declared. Perhaps such Muslims have read the definition of terror used by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation: “the unlawful use of force against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population or any segment thereof, in the furtherance of political or social objectives.”...
March 2005 marks two years since the United States launched an unprovoked--by international standards--attack upon Saddam Hussein’s Iraq , and U.S. troops still occupy the country. Washington claims it has returned sovereignty to a legitimate Iraqi government, but that is not the opinion of many Iraqis. Although the Bush administration once declared that most of the suicide bombers and many insurgents were foreigners controlled by al-Qaida-affiliated Abu Masab Zarqawi, field commanders now tell the Pentagon that Iraqi nationalists opposed to the foreign presence fuel the insurgent ranks...
Meanwhile, the United States persists in tolerating, working with, and supporting both economically and militarily several authoritarian regimes in Asia and the Persian Gulf . In his most recent State of the Union Address to Congress and the U.S. public, President Bush merely chided Saudi Arabia and Egypt for not moving further along the road of democracy. Meanwhile, at the behest of non-democratic foreign leaders, Washington has included on its list of terrorist organizations some movements that are fighting to defeat repression (e.g., the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan) and is considering adding groups such as Hezbollah and other Palestinian organizations, even though they pose no direct threat to the United States. And now there is a new category on the State Department list: “pop up” groups that commit one or more acts of “terror” and then dissolve--circumstances that suggest these groups are more criminal than terrorist...
As with terrorism, the United States exercises a double standard regarding the spread of weapons of mass destruction. Washington condones the continued possession of nuclear weapons by Britain, France, and Israel; it accepts the arsenals in Russia, China, India, and Pakistan, because it cannot eliminate them; but it denies even the option for nuclear energy development in countries where relations are strained, contending that these countries will inevitably try to develop nuclear weapons. This latter case is seen most acutely in Iran and North Korea .
The United States also appears to forget its own energy history. In categorically rejecting Tehran ’s claim that nuclear power use curbs domestic petroleum consumption, allowing Iran to conserve its exportable reserves, Washington ignores the fact that the United States established its first nuclear power plant while America was still the world’s largest petroleum producer.
By refusing to join direct European Union-Iran talks and by discounting the agreement between Moscow and Tehran authorizing Russia to provide fuel for and re-possess spent fuel from Iran ’s nuclear reactor, Washington shows that it is not serious about finding an equitable solution to the Iran impasse. Instead, President Bush seems bent on punishing Iran for exercising its treaty-guaranteed right to develop a peaceful nuclear energy program, judging from comments made during his late February 2005 trip to Europe. The president first said that diplomacy is just beginning, and then, with a grin, he added that “all options are on the table.” From Iran ’s perspective, all options for defending itself from U.S. incursions--whether CIA agents and spy drones or special operations soldiers--are also on the table.
Similarly, Washington seems intent on depriving North Korea of the economic development assistance promised in the 1994 Agreed Framework. Hostility toward North Korea was displayed early in President Bush’s first term when he expressed loathing for the Kim Jung Il administration. This animosity created an unfavorable atmosphere for negotiations in the six-party talks and eventually led to Pyongyang’s decision to reprocess spent fuel rods into plutonium for nuclear weapons. However, contrary to claims by both sides, North Korea may still have only a handful of usable nuclear devices, since such weapons require close, skillful monitoring to avoid deterioration. Unlike the sale of missiles, this may be a factor in the apparent absence of exports of a complete nuclear weapon by Pyongyang ...
... CIA Director Porter Goss was quite explicit about this when he stated that “Beijing’s military modernization and military buildup is tilting the balance of power in the Taiwan Strait.” Apparently, only the United States is permitted to modernize its military. It’s okay for America to install a missile defense system, acquire a new class of nuclear submarines, develop new “stealthy” airplanes, and amass stockpiles of “precision” weapons. Yet of the four modernizations that the PRC is pursuing, military modernization is last priority. In fact, by the end of 2005, the United States plans to boost its military forces by 33,000 and wants to double its special operations cadre, while China will complete a cut of 700,000 troops over two years bringing the People’s Liberation Army forces to under two million. In all, the annual U.S. military budget currently exceeds half a trillion dollars (compared to the PRC’s $50-60 billion).
... Washington is trying to force Taiwan to accept and pay for $18 billion in new “defensive” weapons. The PRC considers Taiwan’s status an internal concern of the Chinese people, who need no “assistance” from other countries. The February 20, 2005 joint declaration by the Japanese foreign minister and U.S. defense secretary that the state of affairs in the Taiwan Strait is a “common strategic objective” was an attack on the unified sovereignty of China , which both the United States and Japan have acceded to under the “one China ” policy...
“Our policies in the Middle East fuel Islamic resentment.” That admission by DIA Director Vice Admiral Lowell Jacoby applies everywhere that Washington tries to impose its will on governments and peoples under the guise of “spreading freedom and democracy.” Polls in four countries with the largest Muslim populations--Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India--reveal significant pluralities (if not outright majorities) who admire Osama bin Laden, are suspicious of U.S. motives, or feel that U.S. foreign policy is anti-Muslim.
Moreover, U.S. actions and policies are creating tensions and fostering resentments in Africa , Asia , and Latin America . Administration promises of economic aid have either not been fulfilled by Congress or have been tied to conditions that are defined and evaluated by Washington (e.g., “good governance,” transparency and accountability, and the rule of law). Potential recipient governments must meet these conditions to be considered for U.S. aid. (These requirements do not apply to certain “friendly” states such as Nepal, where the king dissolved the government and seems set to rule by decree for the indefinite future, and Pakistan, where President Pervez Musharref’s support for the U.S. “global war on terror” has earned him virtual immunity from “inconvenient” restrictions.) Yet Vice Admiral Jacoby acknowledges that “economic and political disenfranchisement” is a prominent factor exploited by terrorist groups to gain new recruits.

The invisible jackboot of the market

2005-03-11T12:32:00.000+09:00

Intelligence, Inc.
CorpWatch

While military contracting for construction or weapons manufacturing is nothing new, the privatization of intelligence instruction is a new and rapidly expanding sector that came about less than four years ago. One estimate in Mother Jones magazine, compiled from interviews with military experts, suggests that as much 50 percent of the $40 billion given annually to the 15 intelligence agencies in the United States is now spent on private contractors.

Part of the problem with hiring private contractors, [former CIA officer, Bob] Baer believes, is the lack of checks and balances. "Now if you ask a private company to produce a report on Afghan opium production, they will produce the report, but it might not be the truth. If you ask a CIA nitwit to write the report, he will care about getting it right, although he will probably get it wrong. But at least his motivation is
correct."

New Water Bill in Senate Offers Wrong Solution

2005-03-06T23:23:00.000+09:00

New Water Bill in Senate Correctly Identifies Problem, But Offers Wrong Solution
Public Citizen

A bill introduced Wednesday in the U.S. Senate, which seeks to address the global water crisis affecting billions of people in the developing world, has the right intent, but the wrong solution. Disguised in “public-private partnership” lingo, the bill, S. 492, co-sponsored by Sens. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), promotes privatization of water services as the means to alleviate the burgeoning problems of providing safe, clean and affordable water to the estimated 1.1 billion people who lack access to water and the 2.4 billion people without sanitation services.

Governments should play a leadership role in providing water to citizens. That responsibility cannot be delegated to private companies that have identified water as the oil of the 21st century. Around the world, the evidence is compelling that private water companies create problems rather than solve them. Rather than providing safe and affordable drinking water for the poor, multinational water companies have increased consumer water rates, failed to extend services to poor neighborhoods, caused public health crises, and have polluted and contributed to creating other environmental problems.

The Money Behind Social Security Privatization Push

2005-03-06T23:11:00.000+09:00

The Money Behind Social Security Privatization Push
Institute For Public Accuracy

Economist and co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, [Mark] Weisbrot said today: "The 'President's Reform Plan 2' has administrative costs ten times as high as the current system -- but even this is not as much money for the financial industry as they would hope to get further down the road. The potential for making money for financial firms from private accounts is enormous -- billions or even tens of billions of dollars annually." Weisbrot is co-author of the book Social Security: The Phony Crisis.
Deputy director of the Campaign for America's Future, [Ellen] Miller said today: "More people are hearing about Congressman Jim McCrery, because he recently gained great power over our future -- and is poised to abuse it. He's President Bush's sherpa, the man charged to push Social Security privatization through the House of Representatives. Incredibly, McCrery has accepted nearly $200,000 in campaign contributions from the very Wall Street firms that stand to benefit the most from privatization. Of course President Bush's campaign contributors reflect a who's who of the country's biggest corporations -- from Wall Street to health care industries -- who are expecting big rewards from their investment in him."

Payout for Pinochet Victims Shines in Dark Times

2005-03-06T16:48:00.000+09:00

Payout for Pinochet Victims Shines in Dark Times for Human Rights
Foreign Policy in Focus

On February 25, Riggs Bank agreed to pay $9 million into a fund for victims of Augusto Pinochet to settle a case over the bank’s role in hiding the former Chilean dictator’s ill-gotten gains. This latest development in the decades-long fight to hold Pinochet accountable for his crimes stands in stark contrast to the twisted human rights rhetoric--and record--of the U.S. government.

Yes, Saddam Hussein, like his fellow former dictator Pinochet, may face prosecution for human rights violations. But at every turn in the war on Iraq and in the broader war on terrorism, the Bush administration has trampled on human rights laws when they became inconvenient, creating dangerous precedents for the rest of the world.

President George W. Bush boasts of his allegiance to human rights at the same time that he dismisses criticism of the illegality of the Iraq invasion and occupation and of the U.S. involvement in extra-judicial assassinations and illegal detainment of terrorism suspects.

Indeed, in the most chilling statement in his 2003 State of the Union address, Bush claimed that “more than 3,000 suspected terrorists have been arrested in many countries. And many others have met a different fate. Let's put it this way: They are no longer a problem to the United States and our friends and allies.” Bush’s euphemisms don’t disguise the assault on the basic right of habeas corpus, the legal principle established in the Magna Carta in 1215 that prevents a government from picking up a person and holding him indefinitely without charge--even if he is a terrorism suspect.

UN asked to investigate US shooting of Italian journalist and military intelligence officer

2005-03-06T16:40:00.000+09:00

UN asked to investigate US shooting of Italian journalist and military intelligence officer
Reporters Without Borders

Reporters Without Borders today called for a UN investigation to shed light on the circumstances in which the US military fired on a vehicle carrying the newly freed Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena yesterday in Baghdad, injuring Sgrena and killing an Italian military officer accompanying her.
"A thorough investigation must be quickly carried out by the United Nations into this blunder with tragic consequences," Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard said.
"It is clear that his enquiry cannot be conducted just by the US army which in the past, especially in the case of the Palestine Hotel shooting that killed two journalists, produced reports aimed solely at exonerating the military," Ménard said, adding, "we demand to know the full truth about this distressing affair."

UN women's rights text adopted after US withdraws proposed amendment on abortion

2005-03-06T16:23:00.000+09:00

UN women's rights text adopted after US withdraws proposed amendment on abortion
UN News Centre

5 March 2005 – A United Nations women's rights committee has adopted a declaration reaffirming priorities set ten years ago at an international conference in Beijing after the United States delegation withdrew a proposed amendment to the text.

UK: Terrorism Bill Undermines Human Rights

2005-03-06T16:18:00.000+09:00

UK: Terrorism Bill Undermines Human Rights
Human Rights Watch

The fundamental human rights concerns raised by the Prevention of Terrorism Bill have yet to be addressed, Human Rights Watch said in a new briefing paper released today. The third and final reading of the Bill in the House of Lords is due tomorrow, March 3.
“In a democracy, it is a basic principle that the state can only punish people after they have received a fair trial,” said Rachel Denber, acting executive director of Human Rights Watch Europe & Central Asia division. “Calling severe restrictions on where you may go or whom you may meet “preventative measures” does not make them any less punitive. And having a judge impose those punishments without a trial does not sanitize them either.”
The proposed legislation allows the Home Secretary to impose “control orders” short of house arrest – which could include restrictions on the right to liberty and privacy, and freedom of expression and association—on the basis of a mere suspicion of involvement in terrorism based on secret evidence. Subsequent review by the courts would be limited to narrow points of law and preclude reconsideration of the evidence. Breach of an order would be a criminal offence. The scheme lacks the due process safeguards required under article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees the right to a fair trial.
Despite a strong ruling from the Law Lords in December 2004 that the indefinite detention of foreign terrorism suspects without trial breaches human rights law, the bill also contemplates the use of house arrest without a fair trial, as practiced by authoritarian governments from the military regime in Burma to apartheid-era South Africa. This would require the UK again to suspend part of its obligations under the ECHR; the judgment by the Law Lords, Britain’s highest court, struck down a previous attempt to do so. House arrest control orders could be imposed on the basis of secret evidence subject to a standard of proof below that required for a criminal conviction, a procedure in breach of fair trial standards.

Human Rights in Algeria

2005-03-06T16:13:00.000+09:00

Human Rights in Algeria
Human Rights Watch Testimony by Tom Malinowski To the House of Representatives Committee on International Relations, Subcommittee on International Terrorism and Nonproliferation

... I welcome the Bush administration’s recognition that the fight against terror must rest in part on the promotion of democratic freedoms and human rights. But that recognition must be translated into consistent policies. And Algeria is an important test case.
Since the events of September 11, 2001, several U.S. officials have visited Algeria and commended that country’s response to armed insurgents. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns, for instance, said in December 2002 that Washington “has much to learn from Algeria on ways to fight terrorism.” Algerians have suffered the ravages of terrorism as much as any people on earth, and those acts deserve our full condemnation. Nevertheless, in human rights terms, Algeria, with its documented record of torture and “disappearances,” is in many ways a model of how not to fight terrorism...
Estimates of the number of Algerians killed in political violence since 1992 range between 100,000 and 200,000. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was quoted on February 23 as putting the figure at 150,000. In fact, there are no precise data on the number of those killed, or the breakdown of civilians, security force members, and armed militants among the victims, or the proportion of the killings attributable on the one hand to armed groups and on the other hand to the security forces and their civilian allies.
Civilians have born the brunt of the violence, from the scores of journalists, intellectuals, and cultural and political figures who were targeted for assassination in the cities, to the thousands of ordinary villagers who were victims of indiscriminate massacres both in remote areas and at the outskirts of Algiers. In addition, many women were kidnapped and raped by members of armed groups. Authorship of these attacks was rarely established; the various armed groups almost never claimed responsibility for specific operations; and authorities rarely conducted investigations worthy of the name or brought the suspected perpetrators to justice.
In the name of combating the insurgency, security forces arrested and tortured thousands of suspects. They engaged in summary executions, often rounding up victims arbitrarily in reprisal for attacks on their own troops. And between 1993 and 1997, they picked up and made “disappear” an estimated 7,000 Algerians who remain unaccounted for until this day.

Azerbaijan: Editor of Independent Weekly Shot Dead

2005-03-06T16:10:00.000+09:00

Azerbaijan: Editor of Independent Weekly Shot Dead
Human Rights Watch

(New York, March 4, 2005) — The Azerbaijani government must fully investigate the killing of the editor of the independent weekly magazine Monitor, Human Rights Watch said today. The murder of the editor, Elmar Husseinov, is a frightening reminder of the danger of outspoken criticism in Azerbaijan.
On the evening of Wednesday, March 2, an unknown attacker shot dead Husseinov, founder and editor of Monitor, when he was stepping out of the elevator in the entrance hall to his apartment. According to local media reports, the lights in the entrance hall were not on when then the attacker fired approximately seven shots, four of which hit Husseinov. The electricity and telephone in Husseinov's apartment were also reportedly cut at the time of the shooting.
“Elmar Husseinov was a very brave man who persisted in publishing his magazine despite constant harassment and threats,” said Rachel Denber, acting executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia division. “We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family, friends and colleagues.”
Monitor regularly published harsh criticism of the government, including allegations of corruption among high-level officials and their families. As a consequence, it faced constant harassment by the authorities.

CCR Takes Case Of U.S. Torture And Detention To O.A.S. Inter-American Commission for Human Rights

2005-03-06T16:05:00.000+09:00

Center for Constitutional Rights Takes Case Of U.S. Torture And Detention Before O.A.S. Inter-American Commission for Human Rights
Center For Constitutional Rights

In Washington, D.C on March 3, 2005, The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and other Petitioners today went before the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights to argue that the U.S. continues to violate its own treaties as well as international and domestic law in its treatment of detainees at Guantánamo Bay and elsewhere. The United States is a member of the Organization of American States and signed the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man in 1948.

Justice fails in Ciudad Juarez and the city of Chihuahua

2005-03-06T15:58:00.001+09:00

Justice fails in Ciudad Juarez and the city of Chihuahua
Amnesty International

The Governor of the state of Chihuahua in Mexico said recently that international attention on the situation in Ciudad Juarez is damaging the city's public image. The purpose of Reyes Baeza's comments is unclear, but such statements in the past have had the effect of undermining families and local NGOs seeking justice.

To say that it is international concern, and not the situation in the region, that is damaging the city's image is very clearly wrong-headed. Ciudad Juarez has a reputation for violence and brutality against women -- not because of international concern -- but because of the reality and the institutional failures to deal effectively with this reality.

The reality is that since 1993 more than 370 young women and girls have been murdered in the cities of Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua - at least a third suffering sexual violence - without the authorities taking proper measures to investigate and address the problem.

USA: Supreme Court outlaws execution of child offenders

2005-03-06T15:57:00.001+09:00

USA: Supreme Court outlaws execution of child offenders
Amnesty International

Today’s decision [March 1st, 2005] by the US Supreme Court outlawing the execution of child offenders -- those who were under 18 at the time of the crime -- finally brings the USA into line with an unequivocal principle of international law, Amnesty International said today, welcoming the ruling.

Newly Released Army Documents Detail Ongoing Abuse of Detainees by U.S. Forces

2005-03-06T15:48:00.000+09:00

Newly Released Army Documents Detail Ongoing Abuse of Detainees by U.S. Forces
American Civil Liberties Union

NEW YORK - The latest round of investigative files released to the American Civil Liberties Union document an ongoing pattern of widespread abuses of detainees by U.S. military forces in Iraq, the ACLU said today.

ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero said that the documents provide further evidence -- if any were required -- of the need for an independent special counsel and Congressional hearings to investigate the abuses. "Pieces of the puzzle are still missing," Romero said. "An outside special counsel is the only way to ensure that all civilians who violated, or conspired to violate, the laws are held responsible for their crimes."

In an unusual move, the Army released approximately 1,200 pages of documents to a select group of reporters late yesterday and today, along with a press statement and fact sheet purporting to explain the disposition of the incidents...
Some of the files that raise questions include:
A description of a DVD called "Ramadi Madness" that included scenes of soldiers kicking a flexicuffed prisoner who reportedly later died; using a dead prisoner’s body to "wave hello"; and joyriding in a prisoner’s van while yelling profanities at Iraqi civilians. Copies of the DVD were destroyed in January 2004 by a sergeant after he learned the incident was under investigation. No soldier was charged in relation to the making of the DVD or the incidents depicted in it.
A report on complaints by a civilian interrogator who described "harsh interrogations and inhumane conduct" by some interrogators and guards during April and May of 2004. He said he was reporting the conduct even though "every harsh interrogation were (sic) approved" by Task Force 6-26 personnel. The interrogator said he was transferred three weeks after he arrived because "I refused to conduct my interrogations inhumanely."
A report on an investigation initiated after Playboy Magazine published an article in May 2004 titled "Death and Dishonor," alleging that soldiers of the 1/15th Infantry Battalion, 3d Brigade, 3d Infantry Division (Ft. Benning, GA), committed numerous war crimes. The article reported that soldiers assigned to the Brigade raped Iraqi women, shot an unarmed Iraqi and stuck their fingers into a prisoner’s wounds. The investigation concluded that "there was no credible information" to substantiate the allegations and was closed in late July 2004.

ACLU and Human Rights First Sue Rumsfeld Over U.S. Torture Policies

2005-03-06T15:45:00.000+09:00

ACLU and Human Rights First Sue Defense Secretary Rumsfeld Over U.S. Torture Policies
American Civil Liberties Union

WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld bears direct responsibility for the torture and abuse of detainees in U.S. military custody, the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights First charged today in the first federal court lawsuit to name a top U.S. official in the ongoing torture scandal in Iraq and Afghanistan that has tarnished America's reputation.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Illinois on behalf of eight men who were subject to torture and abuse at the hands of U.S. forces under Secretary Rumsfeld's command. The parties are seeking a court order declaring that Secretary Rumsfeld's actions violated the U.S. Constitution, federal statutes and international law.

Haitian Police Open Fire on Nonviolent March for Democracy

2005-03-01T22:30:00.000+09:00

Haitian Police Open Fire on Nonviolent March for Democracy
by Bill Quigley, Common Dreams

One year ago today, the elected government of Haiti, led by President Jean Betrand Aristide, was forced out of office and replaced by unlected people more satisfactory to business interests and the US, France and Canada.
Today there was a large nonviolent March for Democracy called for the neighborhood of Bel-Air (Beautiful Air). I attended with Pere Gerard Jean-Juste and others from St. Clare's Parish. We started with prayers in the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in the center of Bel Air. After prayers we joined the larger crowd outside marching and singing through the streets of the old and quite poor neighborhood. Thousands of people were walking and dancing to the beat of drums, loudly chanting, "Bring Back Titi (Aristide)!!!!" in Creole, French and English...
Suddenly, at the corner of Monsiegneur Guillot Street and Des Cesar, there was a loud boom from very close by. People started screaming and running. Another boom, then another...

Early reports document several people shot, including journalists, at least one killed. Others were beaten. Two men showed me where the police wounded them.

As we drove slowly out of the now deserted neighborhood, the faces of the people on the porches who were so happy minutes before, were now somber, many crying.

Tel Aviv blast kills Israeli civilians

2005-02-28T13:46:00.000+09:00

Tel Aviv blast kills Israeli civilians
B'Tselem

B'Tselem strongly condemns yesterday's attack in the Tel Aviv promenade, in which many civilians were killed and injured...
Attacks aimed at civilians undermine all rules of morality and law. Specifically, the intentional killing of civilians is considered a “grave breach” of international humanitarian law and a war crime. Whatever the circumstances, such acts are unjustifiable.

Another Brazilian Environmentalist Shot Dead

2005-02-26T07:07:00.000+09:00

Another Brazilian Environmentalist Shot Dead
Democracy Now!

A Brazilian environmentalist has been shot dead, days after gunmen killed US nun who campaigned to protect the Amazon rain forest from loggers and ranchers vying for its natural resources. Authorities said Wednesday that Dionisio Ribeiro was shot in the head late Tuesday at the Tingua nature reserve near Rio de Janeiro. Colleagues say Ribeiro had received death threats for some time because of his efforts to stop poaching and the illegal felling of palm trees. Ribeiro's murder follows the recent shooting deaths of Sister Dorothy Stang, an environmental activist and advocate for the poor, and Daniel Soares da Costa, an advocate of landless peasants.

Couple Kicked Out of Health Care Center Because They Are Lesbian

2005-02-25T22:29:00.000+09:00

ACLU Files Discrimination Lawsuit on Behalf of Couple Kicked Out of Health Care Center Because They Are Lesbian
American Civil Liberties Union

SYRACUSE, NY - The American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union filed a discrimination lawsuit today on behalf of a Utica couple kicked out of the wellness program at the Charles T. Sitrin Health Care Center, Inc., because they are lesbian. One of the plaintiffs suffers from severe osteoarthritis and other medical conditions and needs to use the facility’s pool to avoid losing her leg.

"It is shameful that a business that is supposedly committed to improving people’s health would deny this couple access solely because they are lesbians," said Sharon McGowan, a staff attorney for the ACLU’s Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, who is representing the couple. "This kind of discrimination will no longer fly now that sexual orientation discrimination is illegal in New York State."

The New York State anti-discrimination law became effective in 2003. The ACLU believes this is first time the law has been used to bring a legal challenge against a private business for refusing to serve gay people.

Canadian cattlemen's NAFTA challenge over mad cow border closing

2005-02-25T22:25:00.000+09:00

Canadian cattlemen's NAFTA challenge over mad cow border closing shows trade model’s assault on consumer safeguards
Public Citizen

In a new report, NAFTA Chapter 11 Investor-State Cases: Lessons for the Central America Free Trade Agreement, Public Citizen describes how Canadian cattle producers are using NAFTA to demand $300 million in compensation from U.S. taxpayer funds, claiming that the Canadian cattle import ban instituted after mad cow disease was found in Canada violates their NAFTA rights. In addition, a Canadian tobacco company is using the private NAFTA tribunals to attack the U.S.tobacco settlements. The report is available here and is being released today at events in Washington, D.C., Sacramento and Olympia, Wash.

WHERE WOULD THE CUTS BE MADE UNDER THE PRESIDENT'S BUDGET?

2005-02-25T22:11:00.000+09:00

WHERE WOULD THE CUTS BE MADE UNDER THE PRESIDENT'S BUDGET?
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Bush Administration FY06 Budget—Highlights and Lowlights

2005-02-25T20:51:00.000+09:00

Bush Administration FY06 Budget—Highlights and Lowlights
Union of Concerned Scientists

President George W. Bush recently released his comprehensive budget request for fiscal year 2006 (FY06). The administration has slightly reduced funding for the missile defense system and did provide significant cuts in new nuclear weapons requests while allowing for an increase in nuclear nonproliferation programs. And while the administration’s budget for renewable energy resources, clean vehicle tax credits, hydrogen energy research, and cleaner school buses address some of the nation’s energy and transportation needs, it fails to provide the long-term size and scope required to ensure a cleaner, more secure energy future. The Bush budget is also replete with a number of anti-environmental requests. Funding cuts for forest fire protections and endangered species, and a backdoor attempt to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling, are just a few examples of regressive policy initiatives within this budget. UCS will oppose cuts to many of these programs and will seek to support policies for a safer, more sustainable world.

Bush-Putin Summit in Slovakia

2005-02-25T20:45:00.000+09:00

Statement from Sam Nunn, Co-Chairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative,regarding Bush-Putin Summit in Slovakia

Each of the steps Presidents Bush and Putin announced today are important...

Still missing-in-action, but now more possible, is a recognition by Presidents Bush and Putin that their strong leadership is required to bring about:
Removal of the liability and access obstacles that have proved to be roadblocks to our cooperative threat reduction agenda so we can dramatically accelerate our work to secure nuclear weapons and materials.
Transparency and accountability for tactical nuclear weapons in both the U.S. and Russian arsenals;
A process for removing U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear weapons from hair-trigger alert, where they serve more as a grave danger than a deterrent;
Transparency and cooperation, beginning with the U.S. and Russia, in preventing biological terrorism and the spread of infectious diseases. This must begin with transparency on biological defensive efforts between the U.S. and Russia.
An acceleration of chemical weapons destruction, which is far behind the agreed-onscheduled.

Note to Bush: Stop the Torture

2005-02-25T20:31:00.000+09:00

Note to Bush: Stop the Torture
Foreign Policy in Focus, by Sister Dianna Ortiz

On Thursday, January 20, I listened to George W. Bush take the oath of office as President. He made many promises. One promise he did not make is to end the torture his administration has not only tolerated but facilitated. It left me wondering what his promises to uphold the law and fight for freedom and liberty really mean...

Terrorist Violence in Kuwait

2005-02-25T20:28:00.000+09:00

Terrorist Violence in Kuwait
Foreign Policy in Focus

Largely unnoticed with the focus on the war and insurgency in Iraq, and overshadowed by an upsurge in violence in Saudi Arabia, terrorist violence is also on the increase in neighboring Kuwait. The Kuwaiti government had been concerned that the preparations for the invasion of Iraq that began in late 2002 would spur an increase in violent attacks directed at either U.S. or coalition troops. During the run up to the invasion in March 2003 the Kuwaiti government ordered a large area along its border with Iraq vacated, and worked with Americans and others to keep the visibility of foreigners at a low level. In spite of this, there were several violent altercations between locals and individuals associated with military preparations for attacking Iraq. Several persons were injured and at least two died. The attacks were attributed to Kuwaiti “Afghans”—returnees from the wars in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Chechnya. But others also were implicated. A member of the national guard confessed to passing military information to Iraq, planning bomb attacks against utility installations, and plotting to assassinate Kuwaiti officials.

A Carbon Rush at the World Bank

2005-02-25T20:20:00.000+09:00

A Carbon Rush at the World Bank
Foreign Policy in Focus

As the Kyoto Protocol comes into force this month, a carbon rush is gaining steam in the financial industry. Investors predict that the carbon trade could become one of the largest markets in the world with a trading volume of $60 - $250 billion by 2008 and some unlikely actors are gearing up to profit from this new, invisible market. Foremost among them is the World Bank.
The Kyoto Protocol requires industrialized country signatories to reduce their emissions by 5.2% below 1990 levels during the 2008-12 commitment period. However, the scientific community has determined that, to avoid dangerous climate change, greenhouse gas emissions reductions of over 60% below 1990 levels were necessary by 2000, rendering the commitments made at Kyoto insufficient. Moreover, some of the largest emitters--the United States and Australia --are not even participating in the protocol. And the Kyoto agreement is weakened further by the fact that virtually all of the emissions reductions required of industrialized nations can be achieved by trading carbon credits between nations, thus avoiding real reductions. For example, since Russia has already met and exceeded the Kyoto targets due to its economic collapse following the fall of the Berlin Wall, Soviet-era ghost emissions are now for sale to the highest bidder, creating the illusion of reductions where none have occurred.
Why is there so much support for carbon trading? Well, there is plenty of money to be made. The average citizen won’t make any; instead, the very same corporations who fuel the problem--the large oil, gas, and coal companies--are among those who will profit from this trade in invisible gases. For instance, just last month, Danish power utility Energi E2 sold hundreds of thousands of dollars of the rights it had been granted free by its government to Shell Oil Company after mild temperatures kept the utility's carbon emissions below expected levels. No such free rights have been granted to ordinary Danish citizens, however.
One institution that is well versed in this complicated market is the World Bank. It was eight years ago that confidential documents1 were leaked to the Institute for Policy Studies from within the bank revealing the early internal debates and plans regarding the World Bank’s involvement in carbon trading.
... [T]he World Bank saw opportunity. One leaked document exposed World Bank plans to profit handsomely by charging a 5% commission on carbon transactions in a self-appointed role as a broker between Northern and Southern governments and industries. (The commission--which the bank now claims is merely to cover costs--will be closer to 8-10%.) With a potential market in CO 2 that could reach $2 billion by 2005, the World Bank noted in the leaked memo, it could quickly earn $100 million in one year--and that was just for starters.

U.S. Dominates World Bank Leadership

2005-02-22T21:57:00.000+09:00

U.S. Dominates World Bank Leadership
Foreign Policy in Focus

Right now, there is a vacancy for the most senior post in official world development circles, a job that is of direct interest to billions of people across the globe. The process and candidates are shrouded in secrecy and the only candidates in the running are U.S. citizens.
The Bank’s critics regularly point out the gaps between its rhetoric and reality. But the fact that three White House staffers are responsible for drawing up the short list exposes particularly clearly how tightly the U.S. government controls the institution. Under a gentleman’s agreement from the 1940s the World Bank head and International Monetary Fund (IMF) deputy head are always U.S. citizens, while the head of the IMF is a European. The efforts to open up this system have come to nothing as neither side of the Atlantic has an incentive to be the first to make a change.

Among the early favored candidates on the rumor-mill were Colin Powell, Robert Zoellick, and even Bill Clinton. Powell was clearly out of favor with the Bush administration, however. He was reportedly not offered the Bank as a dignified escape route from State Department. Zoellick took a different career move, and is Condoleezza Rice’s deputy at the State Department. Clinton was always a long-shot under a Republican administration. Some commentators, however, say Bush could achieve a couple of objectives by promoting Clinton for the Bank position. First, it would be a boon for bipartisanship. Second, it might cramp Hillary’s style if she runs for U.S. president in 2008.

As the World Bank succession rumors abound, its credibility suffers.
Meritocracy is absent. There is no clear process for selecting this position of global importance. It is not just outsiders who do not know what is happening. The World Bank Staff Association formally requested an opportunity to feed into the process of selecting a candidate. It was rapidly rebuffed by the alternative U.S. representative on the Bank’s executive board, Bob Holland. Holland , a Bush "pioneer" who raised at least $100,000 for the 2000 election campaign claimed hollowly: "the World Bank's presidential nomination process is being conducted in a fashion that preserves the World Bank's mission of reducing poverty through sustained growth and promoting responsible international development." (Read the letter: http://www.worldbankpresident.org/archives/SA_Holland_Response.jpeg)

New wave of kidnappings increases dangers for journalists in Iraq

2005-02-22T21:53:00.000+09:00

New wave of kidnappings increases dangers for journalists in Iraq
Reporters Without Borders

Reporters Without Borders voiced alarm today about a new wave of kidnappings in Iraq after Raeda Wazzan, a presenter with the regional public TV station Iraqiya, was kidnapped yesterday in Mosul, 390 km north of Baghdad, probably with her 10-year-old son.

"With four journalists abducted in less than two weeks and one abortive kidnapping attempt, it is becoming increasingly difficult for both Iraqi and foreign journalists to work in Iraq, especially when they try to report in the field," the press freedom organization said.

"Journalists may under no circumstances be used as bargaining chips, and we call on all sides - the foreign and Iraqi armies and the armed groups - to respect the members of the press as neutral observers of the conflict," Reporters Without Borders added.

Republican House Chooses Special Interests Over American Families

2005-02-22T21:49:00.000+09:00

Republican House Chooses Special Interests Over American Families
Statement of Todd A. Smith President, Association of Trial Lawyers of America

"Today President Bush, corporate lobbyists, and special interests are calling the class action bill (S. 5) passed by the House a 'victory'—but it is certainly a defeat for the working families of America.

"This brazen and shameless attack on Americans' legal rights was well-funded by the insurance, drug and other industries. Indeed, the U.S. Chamber of Congress openly acknowledged this week that it spent more than $53 million in 2004 alone on efforts to lobby this bill and others that undermine the legal rights of American families.
"The insurance, tobacco, drug, chemical and other industries that financed the propaganda campaign to force this bill through have also ignored vocal opposition from the National Conference of State Legislatures, 14 state attorneys general, the Conference of Chief Justices, the Federal Judicial Conference and Chief Justice Rehnquist of the United States Supreme Court.

President Bush Should Reconnect with His Party's Roots

2005-02-22T21:46:00.000+09:00

President Bush Should Reconnect with His Party's Roots
Association of Trial Lawyers of America

(Friday, February 11, 2005)—The Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA) welcomed the news that President George Bush will attend a performance today of Lincoln: Seen and Heard, in the East Room of the White House. President Bush has always professed that he is proud to be the leader of the Republican Party, which was founded by President Abraham Lincoln—a trial lawyer whose successful pursuit of fair justice for his clients was renowned...
"It is unfortunate that in recent months, President Bush and special-interest groups who are opposed to meaningful legal protections for Americans have orchestrated a smear campaign against trial lawyers and the working families they represent. What's more, corporate lobbyists are spending millions of dollars to force through reckless and harmful legislation during the 109th Congress that would take away the legal protections of American families. It appears that GOP members have forgotten their roots. Abraham Lincoln was a trial lawyer." [ ATLA President Todd Smith]

In Darfur, PHR Team Finds Substantial Evidence of Intentional Destruction of Livelihoods

2005-02-22T21:43:00.000+09:00

In Darfur, PHR Team Finds Substantial Evidence of Intentional Destruction of Livelihoods
Physicians for Human Rights

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), reporting today from a three-week assessment in Darfur, called on the UN Security Council to step up security and establish an International Compensation Commission to provide reparations to Darfurians whose livelihoods have been destroyed by the recent conflict.

Focusing on the village of Furawiya in the northern part of West Darfur, PHR documented the full range of loss of livelihoods, including loss of community, economic structures, livestock, food production, wells and irrigation, farming capacity, and household structures. When this detail is applied to the estimated 700-2,000 villages destroyed in Darfur, the scale and cost of livelihood destruction is enormous. From the air and land, the PHR team also photographically documented the utter devastation of dozens of villages in the southern border with Chad.
The findings bolster PHR's genocide assessment from its June 2004 investigation along the Chad/Sudan border that highlighted evidence of an organized attempt to affect group annihilation. In particular, PHR's livelihood study is applicable to Article 6c of the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court which defines genocide as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part."

Philippines: ICRC urges respect for humanitarian law

2005-02-22T21:39:00.000+09:00

Philippines: ICRC urges respect for humanitarian law
International Committee of the Red Cross

All too often civilians have suffered directly or indirectly as a result. The recent fighting - the most intense witnessed for some time - began in Sulu Province on the island of Jolo on 7 February; it has led to significant loss of life on both sides and to the displacement of an estimated 27,600 civilians. On 14 February, eight people were reported killed and 150 wounded in bomb attacks in the capital, Manila, and on the island of Mindanao.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) urges the parties to the conflict to respect the basic rules of international humanitarian law enshrined in Article 3 common to the universally accepted 1949 Geneva Conventions and in 1977 Protocol II additional to the Conventions, which the Philippines has ratified, the customary rules on the conduct of hostilities applicable in non-international armed conflicts, and the relevant rules set down in other international treaties...

Azerbaijan: Investigate Death in Custody

2005-02-22T21:36:00.000+09:00

Azerbaijan: Investigate Death in Custody
Human Rights Watch

(New York, February 18, 2005)—The Azerbaijani government must conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into the death in custody of a prisoner convicted for his participation in the October 2003 post-election disturbances, Human Rights Watch said today.
On February 17, 20-year-old Algait Magaramov died in prison No.17, where he had been serving a three-year sentence. He was one of 125 people brought to trial on charges relating to violent clashes that erupted between security forces and demonstrators protesting fraud during the presidential election in October 2003.
“This is a tragic ending for a man caught up in a very unfortunate chapter in Azerbaijan's history,” said Rachel Denber, acting executive director of the Europe and Central Asia Division at Human Rights Watch. “It is the duty of the Azerbaijani authorities to find out what happened to this young man.”

Egypt: Mass Arrests, Torture Follow Taba Bombing

2005-02-22T21:31:00.000+09:00

Egypt: Mass Arrests, Torture Follow Taba Bombing
Thousands Still Held Incommunicado, But Only Nine Suspects Named
Human Rights Watch

(Cairo, February 22, 2005) The Egyptian state security forces arbitrarily arrested thousands of people and tortured detainees in the wake of the Taba Hilton bombing in October, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Four months later, as many as 2,400 detainees are still being held incommunicado.
The 48 page report, “Mass Arrests and Torture in Sinai,” documents how, in the weeks and months after the bombing that killed 30 people in the resort town of Taba, the State Security Investigation agency conducted mass arrests in northern Sinai without a warrant or judicial order as required by Egyptian law.
The Egyptian authorities have identified only nine suspects as responsible for the Taba attack, but the ministry of interior continues to hold an estimated 2,400 detainees. The government has not released information on the whereabouts of these detainees either to their families or lawyers representing them, and has not indicated if any have been charged with crimes.

B'Tselem calls on the PA to abolish the death penalty

2005-02-22T21:29:00.000+09:00

B'Tselem calls on the PA to abolish the death penalty
B'Tselem

On Feb. 17, 2005, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas ratified "scores" of death sentences for Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel or of other criminal charges. B'Tselem called on Abbas to commute the death sentences and abolish the death penalty. Following is the text of the letter:

As I am sure you know, for the past fifteen years, B’Tselem has been one of the most consistent and outspoken defenders of human rights in the Occupied Territories. Since the beginning of the current intifada, B’Tselem has published some forty reports and case studies regarding various aspects of Palestinian human rights. Most recently, we have published reports and conducted advocacy regarding punitive house demolitions, and the use of lethal force by the Israeli military. We have also published reports and conducted advocacy about the discriminatory road regime in the West Bank and the Separation Barrier.

I write you now to express my concern regarding reports in the press that you have ratified death sentences of Palestinians found guilty of "collaboration" with Israel...

Council of Europe: Protect victims of people trafficking

2005-02-22T21:24:00.000+09:00

Council of Europe: Protect victims of people trafficking
Amnesty International

Amnesty International and Anti-Slavery International are calling on European countries to focus new anti-trafficking measures on protecting victims - not just national borders.
The call comes as a drafting group of representatives of the 46 Council of Europe member states (known as the CAHTEH) are due to begin their last meeting in Strasbourg on 22 February to finalise the draft European Convention Against Trafficking in Human Beings.
"The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has already set out a blueprint for a convention that will focus on protecting the rights of trafficked people. Council of Europe member states must set a high standard when it comes to protecting trafficked peoples' rights - rather than settling for the lowest common denominator standards," said Mary Cunneen, Director of Anti-Slavery International, which has been working to eradicate slavery for over 160 years...
In particular, Amnesty International and Anti-Slavery International call on CAHTEH to ensure that the European Convention against Trafficking requires that:
trafficked persons are given access to necessary medical assistance;
a minimum recovery and reflection period of at least 3 months is offered to all trafficked persons, and that the person's presence in the country is regularized and recognized during this time;
minimum 6 months-renewable and permanent residence permits are issued to trafficked persons on the basis of the needs and risks of their personal situation and/or to ensure their presence during proceedings (against the traffickers and/or for compensation), and family reunification is available;
trafficked persons are not detained, charged, or prosecuted for illegal entry or residence and activities which are a direct consequence of their situation as trafficked persons.

Iraqi women - the need for protective measures

2005-02-22T21:20:00.000+09:00

Iraqi women - the need for protective measures
Amnesty International

Iraqi women must have an active role in shaping the future of their country, a new report by Amnesty International said today. Iraqi authorities must take effective measures to protect women and to change discriminatory legislation that encourages violence against them.
Women and girls in Iraq live in fear of violence. The current lack of security has forced many women out of public life and constitutes a major obstacle to the advancement of their rights. Since the 2003 war, armed groups have targeted and killed several female political leaders and women's rights activists. The report Iraq: Decades of suffering - Now women deserve better documents how women and girls in Iraq have been targeted directly, because they were women, and how they suffered disproportionately through decades of government repression and armed conflict.
"Iraqi authorities must introduce concrete measures to protect women," said Abdel Salam Sidahmed, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International. "They must send a clear message that violence against women will not be tolerated by investigating all allegations of abuse against women and by bringing those responsible to justice, no matter what their affiliation."
Three wars and more than a decade of economic sanctions have been particularly damaging to Iraqi women. Under the government of Saddam Hussain, they were subjected to gender-specific abuses, including rape and other forms of sexual violence, or else targeted as political activists, relatives of activists or members of certain ethnic or religious groups.
The report demonstrates how gender discrimination in Iraqi laws contributes to the persistence of violence against women. Many women remain at risk of death or injury from male relatives if they are accused of behaviour held to have brought dishonour on the family.

Detainee Coerced Into Dropping Charges of Abuse Before Release

2005-02-22T21:16:00.000+09:00

Detainee Coerced Into Dropping Charges of Abuse Before Release
ACLU

NEW YORK--The American Civil Liberties Union today released files obtained from the Army revealing previously undisclosed allegations of abuse by U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among the documents are reports that a detainee who was beaten and seriously injured was forced to drop his claims in order to be released from custody.
"The torture of detainees is too widespread and systemic to be dismissed as the rogue actions of a few misguided individuals," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. "The American public deserves to know which high-level government officials are ultimately responsible for the torture conducted in our name."

House Republican Leaders Neuter Ethics Committee

2005-02-18T01:19:00.000+09:00

House Republican Leaders Neuter Ethics Committee, Making an Independent Ethics Agency Necessary
Public Citizen

Republican leaders continue to plunge the U.S. House of Representatives into a crisis of credibility.

After purging the House ethics committee of members who dared scold House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) for his disregard of ethics rules, Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), the new chair of the committee, a devout party loyalist, has just committed his first act as “ethics chief”: firing the two top ethics committee staff members who were instrumental in writing the rebukes against DeLay.

Ethics committee staff director John Vargo and chief counsel Paul Lewis have been given their walking papers. The decision smacks of retribution.

THE LUKEWARM 2004 LABOR MARKET

2005-02-18T01:11:00.000+09:00

THE LUKEWARM 2004 LABOR MARKET: DESPITE SOME SIGNS OF IMPROVEMENT,WAGES FELL, JOB GROWTH LAGGED, AND UNEMPLOYMENT SPELLS REMAINED LONG
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

The labor market showed some signs of improvement in 2004; most notable in this regard was the job growth that occurred in every month of the year. This was the first year of consistent job growth since 2000, signaling the end of the jobless recovery. The unemployment rate also showed improvement, falling from an average of 6.0 percent in 2003 to an average of 5.5 percent for last year. On the other hand, several other indicators and comparisons depict a labor market that remains distinctly weak...
Among nearly all groups of workers, wages fell, relative to inflation.
Over the course of 2004, job growth fell 1.4 million short of the amount that would be typical for a recovery.
Due to the relatively modest amount of job creation, long-term unemployment levels remained exceptionally high, with the number of unemployed individuals exhausting their regular state, unemployment benefits and not receiving additional aid hitting a record level of 3.5 million.
These problems of falling wages, inadequate job creation, long-term unemployment, and a safety net that’s failing to protect job losers have contributed to a recovery that is considerably unbalanced. The economic growth that has occurred has flowed to corporate profits to a degree unseen in the post-World War II period, leaving relatively little for compensation.

$45 billion surplus could fix federal-provincial woes and address poverty in Canada

2005-02-18T01:03:00.000+09:00

It’s time: $45 billion surplus could fix federal-provincial woes and address poverty, says Alternative Federal Budget
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

OTTAWA — The federal government will have an estimated $45 billion in surplus over the next three years – money that could significantly reduce poverty and inequalities in Canada and lay to rest overheated squabbles over cash transfers to the provinces, says the 2005 Alternative Federal Budget (AFB).
“Investing in the nation’s social infrastructure is long overdue. After sitting on eight consecutive years of surplus budgets, with another $45 billion coming down the pike, any other action by this government would be inexcusable.”
In order to begin the critical process of rebuilding the federation and repairing fragile federal-provincial relations, the AFB would:
assure adequate funding for the Canada Social Transfer (CST) by increasing funding for the transfer by more than $13 billion over the next 3 years;
build in accountability and transparency by dividing the social transfer into separate Social Transfer and Post-Secondary Education funds and having a separate envelope for each social item within the CST; and
attack poverty in Canada by increasing the Canada Child Tax Benefit, the GST credit, creating a national child care program, enhancing the EI program, creating affordable housing, increasing OAS and GIS benefits and providing significant funds to address the needs of Aboriginal communities.

The truth is more asinine than fiction

2005-02-17T03:27:00.000+09:00

American Progress

"If you have your rights abused in a college course (e.g. unfair grading, one-sided lectures, stacked reading lists), please report this abuse ." – David Horowitz's Academic Freedom Abuse Center

VERSUS

Description of complaint: "I know the paper was pretty much great because I spell checked it and proofred [sic] it twice. I got an [sic] D- just because the professor hates families and thinks its [sic] okay to be gay." – Database Entry, Anonymous Ohio State Student, 2/9/05

Renewable Energy Plan in Legislature Can Lower Electric Bills and Increase Revenue to School Districts

2005-02-17T00:22:00.000+09:00

Renewable Energy Plan in Legislature Can Lower Electric Bills and Increase Revenue to School Districts:
Renewable Electricity Standard Can Create 38,290 Jobs and Spur Rural Economic Development
Union of Concerned Scientists

AUSTIN, Feb. 15- Nearly 39,000 highly skilled jobs would be created in Texas if the state legislature passes a bill requiring 20 percent of the state's electricity come from clean renewable sources such as wind, bioenergy, and solar power, according to the new study released today by the Union of Concerned Scientists. Increasing the current Texas renewable electricity standard from about 3 percent by 2009 to 20 percent by 2020 would provide a significant source of new income for rural communities, save consumers money on their energy bills by reducing natural gas and electricity costs, and provide more tax revenues for school districts.

UCS analyzed the longer-term goals of both the 20 percent by 2020 and 10,000 MW by 2015 plans. The study, Increasing the Texas Renewable Energy Standard: Economic and Employment Benefits, found that increasing the current Texas standard to 20 percent by 2020 would boost the state's economy with benefits such as:
38,290 new high-skilled jobs in manufacturing, construction, operation, maintenance, and other industries.
$9.4 billion in new capital investment for renewable energy facilities.
$1.1 billion in new property tax revenues for local school districts.
$696 million in revenue to farmers, ranchers, and rural landowners for producing biomass energy and from wind power land leases.
$5.6 billion in savings on consumer electricity and natural gas bills.

As Senate Holds Hearing on Nuclear Arms Today, North Korea and Iran Are Casting Big Shadows

2005-02-17T00:15:00.000+09:00

As Senate Holds Hearing on Nuclear Arms Today, North Korea and Iran Are Casting Big Shadows
Institute For Public Accuracy

"It is difficult if not impossible for an outsider to assess North Korea's nuclear capabilities or fully understand its motivations and intentions with respect to its nuclear weapons program. But it's not difficult to see how North Korea might feel increasingly threatened by the United States. Pyongyang's latest pronouncement comes after the U.S. has labeled North Korea part of the 'axis of evil,' identified North Korea as a potential nuclear target in its most recent Nuclear Posture Review, invaded and occupied Iraq, purportedly to eliminate 'weapons of mass destruction,' made repeated military threats against both Iran and North Korea, and blatantly disregarded its own disarmament obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty."
- Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive director of the Western States Legal Foundation

To Advance Rights, Lead by Example

2005-02-17T00:04:00.000+09:00

To Advance Rights, Lead by Example
Letter to the NYT's editor by Wayne S. Smith, senior fellow at the Center for International Policy

Your Feb. 15 editorial "Self-Inflicted Wounds," about the torture of prisoners, is right on target. For the United States to torture prisoners, or outsource torture, is not only ineffectual, "it debases this nation at home and abroad."

There is another thing: One leads by example. If the United States wishes to encourage greater respect for human rights in the world, it must set a good example. It is doing the exact opposite, so that on Jan. 19, the Cuban government handed formal protest notes to United States representatives in Havana and Washington on the abuse of prisoners at the Guantánamo Naval Base, which, as the notes pointed out, is on Cuban territory.

What chutzpah, one might say. Perhaps, but what did we expect? At a time when the our country is calling Cuba an outpost of tyranny and demanding that it release political prisoners, our own abuse of prisoners at Guantánamo puts the shoe on the other foot.

One can imagine the Cubans asking, "Are we to do as you say, or as you do?"
Wayne S. Smith

Palestinian women experience major poverty induced by loss of spouses, UN says

2005-02-16T23:53:00.000+09:00

Palestinian women experience major poverty induced by loss of spouses, UN says
UN News Centre

15 February 2005 – Palestinian women are suffering massively from malnutrition, especially when they are pregnant and nursing, and have high rates of poverty as widowed heads of household, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in a new report to a UN women's rights panel.

The UN World Health Organization (WHO) says that during a home visit programme in the period under review, October 2003 to September 2004, "69.7 per cent of 1,768 expectant women, within one month of delivery, were found to be anaemic," Mr. Annan's report to the Economic and Social Council's (ECOSOC) Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) says.

Israel's policy of restricting the movement of goods and persons "impacted greatly on food security, which led to a decline in both the quantity and quality of food of 73 per cent of the West Bank and Gaza populations, with four out of 10 households identified as chronically insecure" by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the report says.

Delaying pregnant women at Israeli checkpoints has resulted in "women delivering their babies while waiting to pass, which has led to maternal and infant deaths," it says. These delays also negatively affected women's access to family planning and obstetric care, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) says.

Repression in Advance of Kyrgyzstan’s Elections

2005-02-16T23:42:00.000+09:00

Repression in Advance of Elections:
Letter to Kyrgyz President Askar Akaev
Human Rights Watch
[Note: The U.S. has some influence over Kyrgystan as it is an ally in the terror war. As such, U.S. citizens can urge their governtment to do what it can to ensure human rights in Kyrgystan.]

Dear President Akaev,
We are writing to express concern about several developments surrounding Kyrgyzstan’s forthcoming parliamentary election, scheduled for February 27...
Regrettably, a series of troubling statements made by you and other government leaders seems designed to intimidate and impugn civil society activists and members of the political opposition. Government statements have treated the opposition as “extremists” and accused independent and opposition-affiliated media of subversion. Your government has also suggested that mass popular movements are merely creations of the West and has dismissed the concerns of these movements. These statements reject the ‘Ukraine scenario’ and at the same time degrade the idea of human rights. In Georgia and Ukraine popular movements used peaceful and democratic means to reverse the outcome of illegitimate and unfair elections and to ensure that the will of the people determined the make-up of the government.
In addition, a number of statements about mass protests seem aimed at undercutting the legitimacy of freedom of assembly and at intimidating critics of your government. Especially disturbing are reports of statements that you made claiming that human rights are internal affairs and questioning the legitimacy of election observers.

Is There Such a Thing as Safe Drug Abuse?

2005-02-16T23:32:00.000+09:00

Human Rights Watch testimony to the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources briefing
Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch respectfully submits this testimony to the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources as it addresses harm reduction-based approaches to HIV prevention among injection drug users...
Restricting access to proven HIV prevention strategies, or censoring or distorting factual information about their effectiveness, is not only poor public health policy, but also an impediment to the realization of the human right to seek and impart information of all kinds, the right to the highest attainable standard of health, and the right of life. Human Rights Watch accordingly recommends:
That the U.S. government publicly reaffirm the evidence-base behind harm reduction strategies for HIV prevention, as established in its own government-funded studies;
That the U.S. government withhold funding from programs that censor or distort information about the evidence behind harm reduction, including needle exchange, and redirect funding to proven strategies;
That the U.S. government lift the ban on using federal funds for needle exchange programs; and
That state and local governments lift all legal restrictions on harm reduction programs, including restrictions on needle exchange, and prohibit enforcement of “drug paraphernalia” laws against persons in possession of syringes for the purpose of disease prevention.

Brazil: Amnesty International calls for an end to the bloodshed after activist’s murder

2005-02-16T23:27:00.000+09:00

Brazil: Amnesty International calls for an end to the bloodshed after activist’s murder
Amnesty International

Amnesty International condemns the killing of 74-year-old Sister Dorothy Stang, on February 12, in Anapú, Brazil. Sister Dorothy was shot several times as she walked to attend a meeting.
Sister Dorothy, a nun and native of Ohio in the US, worked as a human rights and environmental activist in the Amazon for over thirty years and had been subject to constant death threats as a result of her work. This is the latest of hundreds of killings of trade unionists, environmentalists and land activists in the Brazilian state of Pará that Amnesty International has documented over decades. The violence has been exacerbated by the long-term neglect shown by state and federal authorities to fighting impunity and protecting human rights defenders at risk.
Amnesty International is calling on federal and state authorities to ensure a permanent end to the violence and fear suffered by so many in the state. Federal authorities recently promised to address the vulnerability of human rights defenders in the area, and it is vital that these promises are backed up with swift action. These measures must include steps to disarm and disband all illicit armed militia, judicial and police reforms to ensure an effective response to such violence, and immediate measures to protect human rights defenders and land activists from death threats.

The United States of America must not block justice for the Sudanese people

2005-02-16T23:25:00.000+09:00

The United States of America must not block justice for the Sudanese people
Amnesty International

As the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, prepares to brief the UN Security Council on the report of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur, Amnesty International is calling on the United States of America (USA) and other Security Council members to immediately implement the Commission's recommendations.
Amnesty International reiterated its concern that the USA is refusing to adopt the Commission of Inquiry’s recommendation that the situation in Darfur should be referred to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
"The Sudanese people's right to justice, truth and full reparations should not be overridden by the political interests of any State," said Kolawole Olaniyan, Director of the Africa Programme of Amnesty International.

Don’t Believe the Hype: Privatized Water Is Not in Consumers’ Best Interest

2005-02-16T02:54:00.000+09:00

Veolia Environnement: A Corporate Profile
Public Citizen

Despite Veolia’s global track record of corruption, broken promises, environmental degradation, price-gouging, obfuscation, misdirection and secrecy, the world’s largest water company continues to enjoy substantial support within powerful pockets of financial and political circles. In some instances, the private water industry has garnered that support the old-fashioned way—by bribing officials.
But support for Veolia, and for the private water industry generally, also stems from ideology, specifically the fashionable variety wherein government is viewed as an incompetent, inefficient, even outdated construct bloated by idle bureaucrats, while market forces and the “ownership society”are celebrated as humanity’s panacea.
What the water privateers, their champions and apologists are loathe to admit is that while companies like Veolia have profited from a cultural wave in celebration of the free market, market forces have nothing whatsoever to do with water delivery. Water service is a natural monopoly. Once Veolia lands its preferred contract, which is to say one that lasts so long it will outlive the contract negotiators, dissatisfied communities do not have the option of simply waking up one morning and turning to a competitor. The promise of private sector superiority in the water sector is a hoax.
The risks, however, are not. While publicly operated water systems are managed to deliver clean, safe and affordable water to you and your family, privately operated systems are managed to get as much money as possible from you and your family.

CAFTA won't save Central American textile industry

2005-02-16T02:39:00.000+09:00

Myth vs. Reality: CAFTA Cannot “Save” Central American Textile/Apparel Industry or Safeguard the U.S. Industry After WTO/MFA Quotas End
Public Citizen

MYTH 1: CAFTA will grant new competitive advantage for Central American textiles/apparel over products from China and the few other nations expected to dominate the quota-free market.
FACT: Textiles and apparel produced in the CAFTA countries already enter the U.S. duty-free under the Caribbean Basin Initiative and its successor programs.
MYTH 2: CAFTA will help Central America maintain its U.S. market share after quota elimination.
FACT: Central America will lose market share because China and India can produce the same goods more cheaply than Central America, even after shipping, and CAFTA cannot remedy this fact.
MYTH 2-redux: CAFTA will help Central America maintain its U.S. market share after quota elimination.
FACT: Central America will lose with or without CAFTA because “correction” of the unsustainable U.S. trade and current account deficits will shrink the overall size of U.S. import market.
MYTH 3: Proximity to the United States will allow Central America to beat China by filling a niche as a just-in-time provider for large U.S. retailers after quota elimination.
FACT: Location is not everything. Central American industry doesn’t have the scale, productivity or skill level to provide this kind of niche service.
MYTH 4: Because China may impose export taxes and the United States is considering “safeguard”measures 24 against some Chinese textile and apparel products, passing CAFTA quickly will allow Central American countries a chance to get a “head start” for successful competition for a zero-protection era.
FACT: Even with the proposed tariffs and safeguards, nothing in CAFTA would make Central American export prices competitive with that of Chinese exports.

IDF soldier shoots and kills a 14 year-old boy playing with his friends

2005-02-16T02:26:00.000+09:00

IDF soldier shoots and kills a 14 year-old boy playing with his friends
B'Tselem

At around 10:30 AM, I saw one of the soldiers pop his head out of the roof of the jeep and aim his weapon at us. I heard a shot being fired and then two or three more. I saw Salah a Din fall backwards without making a sound. Blood was streaming down his chest. I tried to pick him up but he was too heavy. Then a vehicle came from the east. The driver got out of the car, picked Salah a-Din up and took him to the clinic.
- Taufik Abu Muhsan, aged 14

At around 10:30, I saw one of the soldiers stick his head out of the roof of the jeep and aim his weapon towards a group of children playing about 150 meters away from him. He shot one bullet and then I heard two of three more. I saw one of the children fall to the ground. I didn’t understand what could be the cause for the shooting. The children had been playing all morning. They were chasing each other. I could hear them laughing and talking. They don’t have a club or a park to play in. They gather in the alleyways and yards that are between the houses. One of the kids was playing with a toy gun. These are the toys that our children play with. They live in a reality of gunfire and violence and play games like “Arabs against the army.” They act out all the parts of this game - the soldiers shooting people, then a funeral for whoever was shot.
- Muhammad Daraghmeh, neighbor

Palestine and Israel at the Sham Sharm Talks

2005-02-13T14:40:00.000+09:00

Palestine and Israel at the Sham Sharm Talks
by Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies

The U.S. goal for the Sharon-Abbas ceasefire talks was to provide a new chance for Sharon and Abu Mazen to deliver a level of quiet on the Israel-Palestine front so it does not continue to undermine the Iraq war and U.S. regional goals. The Israeli goal was to normalize the occupation, not to end it. The Palestinian Authority's goal was to give Israel what it wants (an end to militant resistance) in the hope that the Bush administration will eventually make good on its claimed commitment to a Palestinian state, however truncated, divided and besieged.
Security for Israel, not an end to Israeli occupation and creation of a Palestinian state, was the only operative focus.
The talks reflected U.S. and Israeli hopes and Palestinian exhaustion. Whether a Palestinian ceasefire holds (the only issue relevant to the U.S.) will reflect decisions made by militant organizations regarding their accountability to Palestinian public opinion; Abu Mazen does not have the capacity to "impose" such a ceasefire.
There is no evidence of the U.S. planning a bigger, let alone different, diplomatic role; the newly appointed U.S. security coordinator's role is to monitor Palestinian, not Israeli, compliance. Monitoring continuing Israeli use of U.S.-supplied weapons in violation of U.S. domestic law is not part of Gen. Ward's mandate.
Israel's negotiations on serious issues (before and after Sharm al-Sheikh) are being conducted with the U.S., not with the Palestinians. They include where settlements can be strengthened, how much land can be annexed, how to continue building the Apartheid Wall despite the World Court ruling against it. The U.S. is not holding Israel accountable even to its existing obligations under the U.S.-backed "Roadmap."
These talks are not "historic." Earlier parallels of failed Middle East peace talks in history include the U.S.-convened 1991 Madrid talks after the Gulf War as well as the 1993 Oslo Declaration. In all of them, occupation was never mentioned.
For optimists, the "best" possible outcome would be a return to the conditions of September 2000 before the second intifada began - recalling that those "better" conditions were so desperate that they led directly TO the uprising.

Thousands Flee Fighting in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

2005-02-13T14:28:00.000+09:00

Thousands Flee Fighting in EasternDemocratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
Doctors Without Borders

New York, February 10, 2005 - Since the end of January 2005, fighting between rebels groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) Djugu region in the eastern Ituri province has displaced thousands of Congolese. A number of people have seen their homes destroyed, and sought refuge in the neighboring villages of Tche, north of Bunia, and Kawa, on the banks of Lake Albert.

Afghanistan: Emergency distribution to combat Kabul's bitter weather

2005-02-13T14:23:00.000+09:00

Afghanistan: Emergency distribution to combat Kabul's bitter weather
Afghanistan is currently experiencing its coldest winter in years, with icy conditions, heavy snow, and reports of people dying from cold in the tented squatter camps scattered around the capital, Kabul.
International Committee of the Red Cross

Following a request from the Afghan Ministry of Health and an assessment of the needs, Italian Cooperation, working in conjunction with the Italian Red Cross and the ICRC, distributed 45 tonnes of wood and over 400 blankets on 1 February to families living in a makeshift camp at Chaman-i-Babrak on the outskirts of Kabul. A similar distribution was carried out to 60 families living in another tented camp, Shahi Shahid, the following day.

Nearly 200 families – about half the camp's residents – benefited from the aid provided in Chaman-i-Babrak. While it certainly did not cover all the needs, it was a start. A further distribution is planned.

Suit on Behalf Of More Than 500 John Does at Guantanamo

2005-02-13T14:13:00.000+09:00

CCR and Pro-Bono Counsel File Suit on Behalf Of More Than 500 John Does at Guantanamo
Center For Constitutional Rights

In Washington, D.C., on February 11, 2005 attorneys filed a petition for habeas corpus late yesterday in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of the hundreds of unrepresented people who remain detained by the United States Government at Guantánamo Bay. These nameless detainees join more than 70 whose cases challenging their continued imprisonment are already being addressed in federal court.
The suit, spearheaded by lawyers from the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), is captioned “John Does Nos. 1-570 v. Bush” because the Bush Administration has continued to withhold the identities of the detainees it keeps in indefinite detention. Until now, without the names of the detainees and without physical access to them, lawyers have been unable to help those who wish to seek their day in court under the Supreme Court’s decision last June in Rasul v. Bush. In that case, also brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Supreme Court held that each detainee has the right to challenge his detention in federal court. Seven months later, the Bush administration continues to disregard the Supreme Court’s decision by blocking the detainees from meaningful access to attorneys or the courts.

Schools Urged to Stop Using Radio Tags

2005-02-13T14:07:00.000+09:00

Parents and Civil Liberties Groups Urge Northern California School District to Terminate Use of Tracking Devices
ACLU

SAN FRANCISCO - Parents in a northern California public school district and civil liberties groups are urging the district to terminate the use of Radio Frequency Identification tags (RFIDs) in mandatory ID badges that track students’ movements.
...
"Forcing our child to be tracked with a RFID device -- without our consent or knowledge -- is a complete invasion of our privacy," parents Michael and Dawn Cantrall said in a statement. The couple filed a formal complaint against the Brittan Elementary School Board in Sutter, California on January 30 after meeting with several school officials. "Our 7th grader came home wearing the ID badge prominently displayed around her neck - if someone wants to harm her, the mandatory school ID card has just made that task easier."

More Union Jobs Disappear in the "Recovery"

2005-02-13T14:04:00.000+09:00

More Union Jobs Disappear in the "Recovery"
The Labour Research Association

Four years of Republican control and a jobless recovery have wiped out more union jobs in manufacturing and pushed more public sector workers into nonunion positions. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recently released new data on union membership for 2004, documenting the ongoing decline in private sector unionization and an alarming drop in public sector unionization as well. The total number of workers represented by unions fell by 361,000 to 17.1 million, or 13.8 percent of the labor force, down from 14.3 percent in 2003.

The number of workers who are union members fell by 304,000 to 15.8 million, or 12.5 percent of the labor force, down from 12.9 percent in 2003, 13.3 percent in 2002, and 20.1 percent in 1984. More than one-third of the loss occurred in the manufacturing sector.

The most disturbing trend is documented in the data on union membership by age group. The percentage of workers 16 to 24 years old who are union members fell to 4.7 percent in 2004 from 5.1 percent in 2003.

Purged Report: "Redefining Rights in America: The Civil Rights Record of the George W. Bush Administration"

2005-02-11T18:06:00.000+09:00

"Redefining Rights in America: The Civil Rights Record of the George W. Bush Administration"
The Memory Hole

Voting Rights: Despite promising to unite the nation and improve its election system, the President failed to act swiftly toward election reform.
•He did not provide leadership to ensure timely passage and swift implementation of the HelpAmerica Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002. Thus, Congress did not appropriate funds for electionreform until almost two years into his presidency.
•The administration seated the federal election reform oversight board 11 months behind schedule, resulting in delayed fund distribution to states. Consequently, states did not have the equipment, infrastructure, or guidance they needed to meet HAVA’s deadlines, including implementation of statewide voter registration databases, development of voter complaint procedures, and installation of new voting equipment.
Equal Educational Opportunity: Early in his administration, the President widely promoted an education reform proposal, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), and garnered bipartisan support. Despite its worthy goals, however, NCLB has flaws that will inhibit equal educational opportunity and limit its ability to close the achievement gap.
•NCLB does not sufficiently address unequal education, a major barrier to closing the achievement gap between minority and white students.
•NCLB defers to states responsibility for defining achievement and adopting assessment measures. Educators fear that, unless there are safeguards in place, states will attach high stakes to tests, punishing students for the system’s failure to teach.
•Students, especially those who are minority, limited English proficient, low income, or have a disability, disproportionately attend schools that do not have the resources to provide necessary learning tools and, thus, are more likely to be identified as low performers and subject to sanctions.
•The lowest performing schools are also the poorest, amplifying the need for sufficient resources. However, President Bush has not aggressively pushed for increased funding, leaving NCLB underfunded every year except its first.
Affirmative Action: The President’s stance on affirmative action is equivocal at best. President Bush has tried to please both supporters and opponents, a tactic that has resulted in a misleading and vague position. He has not exhibited strong leadership on this issue where leadership is vital.
•In 2001, the administration asked the Supreme Court to dismiss a case challenging a Department of Transportation program for disadvantaged businesses. In announcing and discussing the case, it was clear that the administration was not basing its position on support for affirmative action, but procedural technicalities with the case.
•The administration later filed briefs with the Supreme Court challenging programs that allow race to be considered as one factor among many in college admissions decisions, discrediting existingcase law and arguing erroneously that this practice amounted to a quota.
•Instead of promoting affirmative action in federal contracting and education, the administration promotes “race neutral alternatives,” even though in some situations they are not applicable and in others not overly effective at maintaining diversity.
•President Bush frequently speaks about the importance of diversity and exhibits such a standard within his own Cabinet. However, his actions with respect to affirmative action are not in line with that professed commitment as he has undercut programs designed to achieve diversity.
Fair Housing: Policies instituted under the Bush administration have diminished housing opportunities for poor, disproportionately minority families.
•The President shifted resources away from rent assistance for the poor and toward home purchasing programs for minorities. Although a worthwhile effort, the President’s A Home ofYour Own program is hampered by insufficient funding to relieve the chronic affordable housing crisis...
Environmental Justice: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under this administration,despite some attempts, has not always been successful in advancing the cause of environmental justice.
•Although it developed an action plan for ensuring environmental justice goals are met, the agency has not developed measures of accountability and progress.
•EPA has taken few actions to ensure that minority and low-income persons are not disparately affected by environmental contamination and has failed to develop a standard for assessing how exposure to hazards affects public health.
•EPA has de-emphasized the significance of minority and low-income populations in its environmental justice efforts.
•The administration has developed environmental proposals without adequate participation from minority populations, and has thus failed to consider the civil rights consequences of its actions.
Racial Profiling: Early in his term, President Bush promised to end racial profiling. Although he has not completely fulfilled that promise, he issued guidelines to prohibit racial profiling in federal law enforcement, an action unprecedented among U.S. Presidents. President Bush took other actions,however, that had negative effects.
•The administration responded to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks by instituting regulations that facilitate profiling rather than prevent it. Immigrants and visitors from Arab and Middle Eastern countries were subjected to increased scrutiny, including interviews, registration, and in some cases removal.
•Early on, some federal agencies denounced profiling in the performance of their agents’ routine duties, but the administration did not introduce governmentwide policies complete or comprehensive enough to have measurable positive effects after September 11.
•Commendably, two years later, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued guidelines that prohibit federal agents from making enforcement decisions based on race or ethnicity. However, the guidelines contain a broad and loosely defined exception that permits race targeting if law enforcement alleges that individuals are suspected of posing a national security threat. This exception allows profiling in certain undefined circumstances and potentially gives cover to abusers.
Hate Crimes: The administration paid little attention to hate crimes until after September 11. Since then, the President’s words and actions have conveyed mixed messages.
•Immediately after the attacks, the administration declared that acts of violence and discrimination against Arab Americans, Muslims, and those perceived to be of Middle Eastern descent would not be tolerated. The executive branch launched a coordinated campaign to prevent hate crimes against such individuals.
•The administration did not sustain its strong rhetoric after September 11. Neither did President Bush support passage of the Local Law Enforcement Act, a proposal that would protect gay men and lesbians, and persons with disabilities from hate crimes.
•President Bush has further stated that “all violent crimes are crimes of hate,” a view which does not acknowledge the bias associated with such acts.
Immigrants: This report examines three administration immigration proposals or policies. All lack strong civil rights protections for immigrants.
•President Bush has made encouraging comments about the extension of rights to immigrant workers, but has not followed through with action. For example, he initially considered granting amnesty to approximately 3 million undocumented Mexican immigrants in 2001, but subsequently terminated his efforts. In January 2004, the President again proposed a temporary worker program for undocumented immigrants but has not pushed for its passage.
•President Bush has endorsed policies that allow discrimination against certain groups in the processing of asylum requests. For instance, on the unproven claim that Haitian refugees may threaten national security, President Bush granted authority to federal agents to hold them in detention indefinitely without bond until their cases are heard by an asylum court. The UnitedStates does not apply such policy to any other immigrant group.
•Following the terrorist attacks, the administration instituted policies that singled out immigrants from Middle Eastern and Muslim countries. The DOJ allowed local law enforcement to contact and question visitors, citizens, and other residents. It also detained witnesses on minor violations, held many in secret in harsh conditions, and did not inform them of charges against them. The administration limited available channels for legal entry and began requiring individuals from selected countries to register and submit fingerprints and photographs upon arrival.
Native Americans: President Bush has acknowledged the great debt America owes to Native Americans. However, his words have not been matched with action. Commission reports document that the President has not effectively used the stature of his office to speak out on ending discrimination against Native Americans. Nor has he engaged in a consistent effort to alleviate their problems. He has not applied resources to improving conditions or adequately funded programs that serve Native peoples. For example:
•President Bush has not requested sufficient funding for tribal colleges and universities, has proposed terminating $1.5 billion in funding for education programs that benefit Native Americans, and has not provided adequate resources to meet NCLB goals that apply to Indian Country.
•For 2004, the administration requested $3.6 billion for the Indian Health Service, the primary provider of Native American health care. This falls far short of the $19.4 billion in unmet health needs in Native communities.
•President Bush’s budget requests for housing programs have not approached the $1 billion required to meet the demand, and consequently, Native Americans have an immediate need for 210,000 housing units.
•In 2003, President Bush terminated funding for critical law enforcement programs, including the Tribal Drug Court Program. Experts agree that problems with the criminal justice system in Indian Country are serious and understated.
Women: President Bush’s record on women’s issues is mixed. Economic gains for which he has paved the way are overshadowed by other actions that have set back women’s rights. For example:
•The Bush administration closed the White House Office for Women’s Initiatives and Outreach and attempted to close the Women’s Bureau at the Department of Labor (DOL). It retreated amid objections from women’s groups.
•The administration withdrew Department of Education guidance on sexual harassment in schools from the Internet and ended distribution of information on workplace rights of women.
•President Bush attempted to redirect Title IX enforcement, but ceased his effort after overwhelming public expressions of support for the law.
•The administration commendably launched a plan to improve women’s access to capital by creating a Web site for women entrepreneurs and holding related conferences, but at the sametime abolished DOL’s Equal Pay Initiative.
Gay Men and Lesbians: President Bush appointed some gay rights supporters to Cabinet and administration positions. However, other actions he and his administration have taken have almost completely eclipsed the efforts he made. For example:
•In 2003, Attorney General John Ashcroft did not allow a Gay Pride Month celebration at DOJ, even though it had been an established program at the agency. He relented after protestations, but did not permit the use of agency funds, even though they are used for other heritage and history commemorations.
•President Bush opposes the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and Hate Crimes Prevention Act, both of which include protections for gay individuals.
•In 2004, the Office of Special Counsel removed documents pertaining to sexual orientation discrimination in the federal government from its Web site. Only after the action was publicized did the administration direct that the materials be re-posted.
•President Bush has stated unequivocal support for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. If passed, the amendment would be the first in U.S. history to limit rather than preserve and expand the rights of a group.

As President Dithers, Congressional Leaders Take Lead on Tackling Global Warming

2005-02-11T17:39:00.000+09:00

As President Dithers, Congressional Leaders Take Lead on Tackling Global Warming
Statement by Kevin Knobloch, President, Union of Concerned Scientists

"The scientific consensus is clear: global warming is already underway, human burning of fossil fuels is primarily responsible, and we must act very soon to have any hope of minimizing the most harmful impacts of climate change. To have a fighting chance to keep global warming within safe levels, countries like the United States must reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 80 percent below 2000 levels by 2050—and we must begin to make those reductions right away.
"Regrettably, the Bush Administration has not only failed to demonstrate leadership, but has actively worked to misrepresent climate science. That abject failure of leadership is not only increasing the risks of global warming but also holding back U.S. companies. Far from hurting our economy, an aggressive rollout of clean energy technologies will help move our economy into the future and create hundreds of thousands of high quality jobs.
"What we need now is leadership that responds to the science with action. Today, a bipartisan group of senators and representatives are providing that leadership with the introduction of the Climate Stewardship Act. The Act creates an economy-wide market-based mechanism to begin the reduction of global warming emissions. We applaud Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) and Representatives Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD) and John Olver (D-MA) for their commitment to taking action on this critical issue...

U.S. Senate Gives Green Light to Market Fraud and Deception

2005-02-11T17:33:00.000+09:00

U.S. Senate Gives Green Light to Market Fraud and Deception
Statement by Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook

The U.S. Senate today has given banks, credit card companies, insurers, HMOs, drug manufacturers and other big corporations a green light to defraud and deceive consumers without fear of being held accountable. Passage of the class action legislation will mean that most class action lawsuits will not be heard in either state courts or federal courts. Innocent consumers who are victimized by predatory lending, car repossessions, fraudulent billing practices and other corporate abuses will be locked out of the courthouse.
This action by a Republican-controlled Senate is a Washington power grab that takes power away from the states and renders most state consumer protection laws unenforceable by consumers.

TWO TAX CUTS THAT BENEFIT ONLY HIGH-INCOME HOUSEHOLDS

2005-02-11T17:16:00.000+09:00

TWO TAX CUTS THAT BENEFIT ONLY HIGH-INCOME HOUSEHOLDS —PRIMARILY MILLIONAIRES — SLATED TO START TAKING EFFECT IN 2006: Will These Tax Cuts be Implemented While Basic Programs for the Working Poor and Other Families are Cut?
By Robert Greenstein, Joel Friedman, and Isaac Shapiro
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

The President’s budget contains reductions in an array of domestic programs, including programs in the education, health care, housing, veterans, and various other areas. The budget debate now moves to Capitol Hill. There has been no discussion, however, in the Administration or Congress of another potential way to reduce projected deficits — canceling or deferring two significant tax cuts enacted in 2001 that have not even yet started to take effect and that will benefit only households with high incomes.

These provisions will only be fully effective in 2010. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that they will reduce revenues by $9 billion in 2010, rising to $16 billion in 2015. The ten-year cost of these provisions when they are fully in effect (2010 through 2019) would be $146 billion.[1] When the associated interest payments on the national debt of $51 billion are added in, the cost rises to $197 billion over this ten-year period.

DOMESTIC CUTS WOULD SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCE MOST PUBLIC SERVICES

2005-02-11T16:58:00.000+09:00

UNPUBLISHED ADMINISTRATION BUDGET DOCUMENTS SHOW DOMESTIC CUTS WOULD SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCE FUNDING FOR MOST PUBLIC SERVICES
By Sharon Parrott, Isaac Shapiro, David Kamin, and Ruth Carlitz
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

The Administration’s budget calls for $214 billion in reductions over five years in annually appropriated domestic programs outside homeland security, compared to current funding levels adjusted only for inflation. These programs, generally referred to as “discretionary” programs, encompass a broad array of public services such as education, environmental protection, transportation, veterans’ health care, medical research, law enforcement, and food and drug safety inspection.

One unusual aspect of this budget is the omission of information about how these cuts would affect particular programs. The budget fails to provide proposed funding levels for individual appropriated programs for years after 2006 — the first time since 1989 that an Administration’s budget has lacked this type of information. As a consequence, the published, widely available budget documents released by the Administration on February 7 provide programmatic details on how the Administration would achieve only the first $18 billion of these cuts, the reductions that would occur in 2006. Some $196 billion in domestic cuts — all of the reductions in years 2007 through 2010 — are left unidentified.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Survey Summary

2005-02-10T16:56:00.000+09:00

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Survey Summary
Union of Concerned Scientists

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) distributed a 42-question survey to more than 1,400 USFWS biologists, ecologists, botanists and other science professionals working in Ecological Services field offices across the country to obtain their perceptions of scientific integrity within the USFWS, as well as political interference, resources and morale. Nearly 30 percent of the scientists returned completed surveys, despite agency directives not to reply—even on personal time.
Large numbers of agency scientists reported political interference in scientific determinations.
Nearly half of all respondents whose work is related to endangered species scientific findings (44 percent) reported that they "have been directed, for non-scientific reasons, to refrain from making jeopardy or other findings that are protective of species." One in five agency scientists revealed they have been instructed to compromise their scientific integrity—reporting that they have been "directed to inappropriately exclude or alter technical information from a USFWS scientific document,"such as a biological opinion;
More than half of all respondents (56 percent) knew of cases where "commercial interests have inappropriately induced the reversal or withdrawal of scientific conclusions or decisions through political intervention;" and
More than two out of three staff scientists (70 percent) and nearly nine out of 10 scientist managers (89 percent) knew of cases "where U.S. Department of Interior political appointees have injected themselves into Ecological Services determinations." A majority of respondents also cited interventions by members of Congress and local officeholders.

Three out of four staff scientists and even higher proportions of scientist managers (78 percent) felt that the USFWS is not "acting effectively to maintain or enhance species and their habitats, so as to avoid possible listings under the Endangered Species Act;"
For those species already listed as threatened or endangered under the ESA, more than two out of three scientists (69 percent) did not regard the USFWS as effective in its efforts toward recovery of those listed species;
Nearly two out of three scientists (64 percent) did not feel the agency "is moving in the right direction;" and
More than two-thirds of staff scientists (71 percent) and more than half of scientist managers (51 percent) did not "trust USFWS decision makers to make decisions that will protect species and habitats."

More than a third (42 percent) said they could not openly express "concerns about the biological needs of species and habitats without fear of retaliation" in public while nearly a third (30 percent) did not feel they could do so even inside the confines of the agency;
Almost a third (32 percent) felt they are not allowed to do their jobs as scientists;
A significant minority (19 percent) reported having "been directed by USFWS decision makers to provide incomplete, inaccurate or misleading information to the public, media or elected officials;" however,
Scientific collaboration among USFWS scientists, academia and other federal agency scientists appears to be relatively untainted by this chilling effect, with a strong majority (83percent) reporting they felt free to collaborate with their colleagues on species and habitat issues.

More than nine out of ten (92 percent) did not feel that the agency "has sufficient resources to adequately perform its environmental mission;" and
More than four out of five (85 percent) said that funding to implement the Endangered Species Act is inadequate.

While the United States Makes Demands on Iran...

2005-02-10T16:44:00.000+09:00

While the United States Makes Demands on Iran,Budget Calls for Boost of U.S. Nuclear Weapons
Institute for Public Accuracy
Jacqueline Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation

Executive director of the Western States Legal Foundation, which focuses on nuclear policy, Cabasso said today: "While the U.S. turns its sights on Iran, accusing that country of pursuing a covert nuclear weapons program, U.S. nuclear weapons spending has quietly grown by 84 percent since 1995 -- several years after the Cold War ended. This year the U.S. will spend nearly $7 billion to maintain and modernize nuclear warheads, usable for decades to come, and many billions more to operate and modernize its delivery and command and control systems. Altogether, the United States is spending about $40 billion annually on nuclear forces. Ten thousand nuclear warheads, with some 2,000 on hair-trigger alert, remain in the U.S. arsenal, each one many times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped 60 years ago."

President Bush’s Foreign Policy Discussion in the 2005 State of the Union Address—A Critical Assessment

2005-02-10T16:38:00.000+09:00

President Bush’s Foreign Policy Discussion in the 2005 State of the Union Address—A Critical Assessment
By Stephen Zunes, Foreign Policy in Focus

“There are still regimes seeking weapons of mass destruction—but no longer without attention and without consequences.”

The world has long paid attention to regimes that seek weapons of mass destruction. That is why the international community developed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the Chemical Weapons Convention, and the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological and Toxic Weapons, along with their enforcement bodies, such as the International Atomic Energy Agency and Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Indeed, not only does there not seem to have been any more attention or additional threat of consequences to regimes seeking weapons of mass destruction as a result of the Bush administration’s actions, but the administration has tried repeatedly to discredit and undermine the authority of these enforcement bodies.

Iraq had eliminated its chemical weapons and its chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons programs over ten years ago and had allowed unfettered inspections by United Nations officials to resume, yet the United States invaded anyway. By contrast, North Korea restarted its nuclear program and has continued to bar inspectors, but it has not been invaded. The message from U.S. policymakers appears to be that the most serious consequences will result if you stop seeking weapons of mass destruction and allow in UN inspectors.
“In Iraq, 28 countries have troops on the ground, the United Nations and the European Union provided technical assistance for the elections, and NATO is leading a mission to help train Iraqi officers.”
The vast majority of these “troops” are not combat troops and most of these contingents consist of well under fifty participants. The UN and EU role in the elections, along with the NATO training programs, has been somewhat more tangible, but nevertheless limited and have taken place primarily outside of Iraq. America’s “coalition” partners continue to dwindle. Iraq continues to be an overwhelmingly American operation, with only the British providing substantial assistance.
“In the long term, the peace we seek will only be achieved by eliminating the conditions that feed radicalism and ideologies of murder. If whole regions of the world remain in despair and grow in hatred, they will be the recruiting grounds for terror, and that terror will stalk America and other free nations for decades. The only force powerful enough to stop the rise of tyranny and terror, and replace hatred with hope, is the force of human freedom…. And we have declared our own intention: America will stand with the allies of freedom to support democratic movements in the Middle East and beyond, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world…
“Our aim is to build and preserve a community of free and independent nations, with governments that answer to their citizens, and reflect their own cultures. And because democracies respect their own people and their neighbors, the advance of freedom will lead to peace.”
President Bush is certainly correct regarding the correlation between autocratic governance and the rise of extremism. However, the United States has long been the primary backer of repressive governments in the Middle East and, under President Bush, military and security ties with these dictatorships has increased. It is important to note that sixteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia, whose family dictatorship has received tens of billions of dollars worth of military hardware and security assistance from the United States since President Bush came to office. The man believed to be the lead 9/11 hijacker, Mohammed Attah, is Egyptian, whose autocratic Mubarak regime receives more than two billion dollars worth of taxpayer-provided military and economic aid annually. None of the hijackers or any prominent al-Qaida leader has come from Iran, Syria, Palestine, Taliban Afghanistan, or Saddam’s Iraq, the countries that President Bush most commonly cites as needing greater freedom in order to support American security interests.

If President Bush was serious about promoting freedom, he would call for an immediate cessation of arms transfers and any forms of security assistance to Middle Eastern governments which do not “respect their own people and their neighbors.” He has not done so, however.

To cite just one example, there have been few greater allies of freedom than Egypt’s Saad El-Din Ibrahim and his Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies, and its journal Civil Society. Among the Center’s activities was monitoring elections and workshops and civic education. Unfortunately, in 2001, Egyptian authorities arrested Saladin and twenty-seven associates, shut down the Ibn Khaldun Center, and banned their journal. Despite this, U.S. aid has continued to flow to Mubarak’s corrupt dictatorship.
Finally, democracies do not necessarily respect their neighbors. Israel is an exemplary democracy (at least for its Jewish citizens), but it has maintained an oftentimes repressive occupation of its Palestinian neighbors since 1967, including widespread and ongoing violations of international humanitarian law.
“The beginnings of reform and democracy in the Palestinian territories are now showing the power of freedom to break old patterns of violence and failure. …Secretary of State Rice…will discuss with [Prime Minster Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas] how we and our friends can help the Palestinian people end terror and build the institutions of a peaceful, independent democratic state.”
Pro-democracy activists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including the harshest critics of the corrupt and autocratic rule of the late Yasir Arafat, have long argued that the greatest obstacle to the creation of peaceful, independent and democratic Palestinian state is the Israeli occupation. President Bush has not demanded that Israel end its military occupation, which continues to deny the Palestinians their freedom and which has resulted in the terrorist backlash.
“To promote this democracy, I will ask Congress for $350 million to support Palestinian political, economic, and security reforms. The goal of two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace, is within reach—and America will help them achieve that goal.”

First of all, the $350 million figure hardly covers the damage inflicted upon Palestinian society and infrastructure by Israel in recent years, including the U.S.-backed military offensive during the spring of 2002. That figure is also less than one-tenth of what the administration sends annually to the far more prosperous government of Israel, much of which goes to support the occupation and colonization of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which is the major impediment to peace.

While Bush is the first president to so explicitly call for the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, there are serious questions as to what kind of “state” he has in mind. He has refused to endorse the Geneva Initiative, the model peace agreement signed in December 2003 by leading Israeli and Palestinian moderates which calls for the withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces and colonists from lands seized in 1967 (with minor and reciprocal border adjustments), a shared co-capital in Jerusalem, strict security guarantees for Israel, and no mass return of Palestinian refugees into Israel. Instead, President Bush has endorsed the Sharon Plan, which—while calling for the withdrawal of Israel’s illegal settlements from the occupied Gaza Strip—allows Israel to annex the vast majority of its illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and surrounding Palestinian lands, leaving the Palestinians with only a series of small non-contiguous cantons surrounded by Israel. Israel would control the air space, water resources, and the movement of people and goods within the archipelago of Palestinian territory as well as between this Palestinian territory and neighboring Egypt and Jordan. In short, the “Palestinian state” that Bush envisions appears to bear a far closer resemblance to the infamous Bantustans of apartheid South Africa than a viable independent country.
“To promote peace and stability in the broader Middle East, we must confront regimes that continue to… pursue weapons of mass murder.”

The Bush administration has refused to confront Israel regarding its arsenal of nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons, even though Israel is required through UN Security Council resolution 487 to place its nuclear program under the trusteeship of the International Atomic Energy Agency. It has refused to confront Pakistan and India in their refusal to disarm as well, despite UN Security Council resolution 1172 requiring these nations to get rid of their nuclear weapons; in fact, the Bush administration dropped sanctions imposed under President Clinton against these two countries. The Bush administration has also failed to confront Egypt, despite its maintaining an arsenal of chemical and biological weapons.

The Bush administration’s attitude appears to be that it is only willing to confront Middle Eastern countries which “pursue weapons of mass murder” if they are not strategic allies. Indeed, the Bush administration has rejected calls by such diverse countries as Jordan, Syria, Iran, and Egypt for the establishment of a WMD-free zone for the entire Middle East, instead opting for a kind of WMD apartheid where the United States alone has the authority to say which countries can develop these dangerous weapons and which ones cannot. Even putting aside the legal and moral concerns of such double standards, they simply will not work; any attempt to impose a regime of haves and have-nots from the outside will only encourage the have-nots to try even harder to become one of the haves.
“Syria still allows its territory, and parts of Lebanon, to be used by terrorists who seek to destroy every chance of peace in the region. … We expect the Syrian government to end all support for terror and open the door to freedom.”
Syria—like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and other Arab states—indeed must open its door to freedom, both for its own people as well as for the people of Lebanon, over whose government Syria exercises considerable influence. However, the State Department has acknowledged that Syria has not directly engaged in terrorist operations for more than twenty years.
The Hizbullah movement in Lebanon, which has received limited Syrian support, is now a legal political party with representation in the Lebanese parliament. It appears that its armed wing has not engaged in any acts of international terrorism for more than a decade and it has restricted its attacks against Israeli occupation forces in southern Lebanon and disputed border regions of Syria. Some tiny leftist groups composed of radical Palestinian exiles remain in Syria, but they are largely defunct at this point and are no longer much of a threat. Hamas has a political office in Damascus, as it does in a number of Arab capitals, but its military operations have come almost exclusively from within the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank. In short, Syria is at most a very minor actor in international terrorism and has been an active ally against al-Qaida.
In addition, for well over a decade, the Syrian government has pledged strict security guarantees and even full diplomatic relations with Israel in exchange for Israel returning Syrian land conquered in the 1967 war. A series of UN Security Council resolutions have called on Israel to rescind its annexation of the Golan region, end its ongoing colonization and—in return for security guarantees like those offered by the Damascus government—return the territory to Syria. However, the U.S.-backed Sharon government of Israel has thus far refused to even consider living up to its international obligations. Syria has repeatedly called for a resumption of peace negotiations with Israel, which came tantalizingly close to a final settlement in early 2000 under the more moderate Labor government of Ehud Barak, but the hard-line Sharon has refused the offer.
While much positive can be said about Israel’s democratic institutions and traditions and much negative can be said about the autocratic Assad regime in Syria, the fact remains that it is Israel, not Syria, which is primarily responsible for the failure of the peace process between these two nations.
“Today, Iran [is]… pursuing nuclear weapons while depriving its people of the freedom they seek and deserve. We are working with European allies to make clear to the Iranian regime that it must give up its uranium enrichment program and any plutonium reprocessing, and end its support for terror. And to the Iranian people, I say tonight: As you stand for you own liberty, America stands with you.”

Just as he did with Iraq, despite his inability to provide credible evidence to support his assertion, President Bush is now insisting that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. Though Iran’s potential to develop nuclear weapons is far greater than that of Iraq during the final decade of Saddam Hussein’s rule and certainly cannot be ruled out, the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program—which began with U.S. support under the Shah’s regime—appears to be restricted to the development of nuclear energy, which (despite its environmental risks and other concerns) is perfectly legal under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Unfortunately, the United States has not been working with the Europeans in their thus far successful efforts to prevent Iran from further developing its nuclear program. In fact, the Bush administration has been rather hostile to the efforts of both the Europeans and the International Atomic Energy Agency for its strategy of negotiations, insisting instead on strict sanctions and threatening possible military action.

The past year or so has seen serious setbacks in the gradual political opening Iran had been experiencing over the past decade. However, the Bush administration’s concerns for the Iranian people’s struggle for liberty should not be taken seriously. It is important to remember that Iran was once free and democratic back in the early 1950s. This bold democratic experiment was cut short, however, when the CIA overthrew the constitutional government of Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953 and replaced him with the tyrannical Shah who—with active U.S. support of his brutal SAVAK secret police—largely succeeded in subsequent years to wipe out the democratic opposition. Unable to get inside the mosques enough to eliminate the Islamist opposition, when a popular revolt finally ousted him in 1979, the country became dominated by hard-line clerics. The United States has never apologized for its illegal coup against Mossadegh and its quarter century of support for the Shah’s repression.
It should also be noted that leading Iranian democrats have defended their country’s nuclear program and have argued that support of their efforts by the Bush administration hurts their credibility and opens them up to further repression.
“Our generational commitment to the advance of freedom, especially in the Middle East, is now being tested and honored in Iraq. That county is a vital front in the war on terror, which is why the terrorists have chosen tomake a stand there.”

Extremist Islamic groups have coalesced in Iraq today for the same reason they came together in Afghanistan during the 1980s: to support a popular resistance movement in a Muslim society that had been invaded and occupied by a foreign power which sought to impose its system upon them. Most Iraqis, like most Afghans, want to be free from the violence imposed upon them by both terrorists and foreign occupation policies and to determine their own future free from outside influence.
“Our men and women in uniform are fighting terrorists in Iraq, so we do not have to face them here at home.”
This is simply a retread of the rationalization so often given during the 1960s and early 1970s as to why U.S. forces could not leave Vietnam: “If we don’t fight them over there, we will have to fight them here.” Nearly thirty years after the communists completed their takeover of South Vietnam, however, the Vietnamese have yet to attack the United States. In fact, they are becoming increasingly valuable trading partners. Vietnamese stopped killing Americans when American forces got out of their country and stopped killing them. So, presumably, would the Iraqis.
“And the victory of freedom in Iraq will strengthen a new ally in the war on terror, inspire democratic reformers from Damascus to Tehran, bring more hope and progress to a troubled region, and thereby lift a terrible threat from the lives of our children and grandchildren.”
It is noteworthy that reformers in Syria and Iran have been quite critical of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, arguing that it has actually provoked the rise of extremist elements in the Middle East and strengthened the repressive regimes in Damascus and Tehran which rationalize for their tightening control due to security concerns along their border with Iraq. Research by leading think tanks—as well as the Pentagon, State Department, and the CIA—indicate that U.S. intervention in Iraq has actually increased the risks from terrorism through heightened anti-American sentiment and has contributed to the instability of the region by strengthening the appeal of these extremist groups.

“We will succeed because the Iraqi people value their own liberty—as they showed the world last Sunday...
“Americans recognize that spirit of liberty, because we share it. In any nation, casting your vote is an act of civic responsibility; for millions of Iraqis, it was also an act of personal courage, and they have earned the respect of us all...
“We will succeed in Iraq because Iraqis are determined to fight for their own freedom, and to write their own history.”

Despite the many problems and limitations of the January 30 Iraqi election, it was indeed a remarkable testament of the Iraqi people’s desire for self-determination and for accountable government.
However, little credit should be given to President Bush. It should be remembered that the Bush administration, during most of the first year of the U.S. occupation, strongly opposed holding direct elections. Initially, the United States supported the installation of Ahmed Chalabi or some other compliant exile as leader of Iraq. Then, U.S. officials tried to keep their viceroy Paul Bremer in power indefinitely. Next, the Bush administration pushed for a caucus system where appointees of American appointees would choose the new government. It was only after Ayatollah Sistani brought hundreds of thousands of Shiites out onto the streets in January 2004 demanding direct elections that President Bush did give in, but—instead of going ahead with the poll in May as proposed—he postponed it until the following January after the security situation had deteriorated so badly that most of the large and important Sunni Arab minority was unable or unwilling to participate. Furthermore, the insurgency has now reached the point where it appears that the new government will be largely dependent on the ongoing presence of American troops for their survival.
In addition, there are still serious questions as to whether the United States will even allow the Iraqi people to fully exercise their freedom and write their own history. Prior to his departure, Bremer established a series of Transitional Administrative Laws, which included the privatization of much of the country’s public assets, unrestricted foreign investment and repatriation of profits, and other controversial economic measures that are almost impossible for the new government to overturn. U.S. citizens in Iraq continue to enjoy extraterritorial rights, meaning they cannot be prosecuted in Iraq for any crime, no matter how serious. U.S. forces can move and attack at will anywhere in the country without the government’s assent. Americans have a major presence in virtually every Iraqi government ministry and largely control their budgets. U.S. appointees with terms lasting through 2009 are in charge of “control commissions” which oversee fiscal policy, the media, and other important regulatory areas. U.S. appointees also dominate the judiciary, which has the power to overturn government laws.

The Human Rights Case Against Attacking Iran

2005-02-10T15:53:00.000+09:00

The Human Rights Case Against Attacking Iran
Human Rights Watch

American policy toward the Middle East, and Iran in particular, is often couched in the language of promoting human rights. No one would deny the importance of that goal. But for human rights defenders in Iran, the possibility of a foreign military attack on their country represents an utter disaster for their cause.
The situation for human rights in Iran is far from ideal.... [b]ut Iranian society has refused to be coerced into silence. The human rights discourse is alive and well at the grassroots level; civil society activists consider it to be the most potent framework for achieving sustainable democratic reforms and political pluralism.
...
...But the threat of foreign military intervention will provide a powerful excuse for authoritarian elements to uproot these groups and put an end to their growth.
Human rights violators will use this opportunity to silence their critics by labeling them as the enemy's fifth column. In 1980, after Saddam Hussein invaded Iran and inflamed nationalist passions, Iranian authorities used such arguments to suppress dissidents.
American hypocrisy doesn't help, either. Given the longstanding willingness of the American government to overlook abuses of human rights, particularly women's rights, by close allies in the Middle East like Saudi Arabia, it is hard not to see the Bush administration's focus on human rights violations in Iran as a cloak for its larger strategic interests.
Respect for human rights in any country must spring forth through the will of the people and as part of a genuine democratic process. Such respect can never be imposed by foreign military might and coercion -- an approach that abounds in contradictions. Not only would a foreign invasion of Iran vitiate popular support for human rights activism, but by destroying civilian lives, institutions and infrastructure, war would also usher in chaos and instability. Respect for human rights is likely to be among the first casualties.

Mexico: Fox’s Labor Reform Proposal Would Deal Serious Blow to Workers’ Rights

2005-02-10T15:42:00.000+09:00

Mexico: Fox’s Labor Reform Proposal Would Deal Serious Blow to Workers’ Rights
Human Rights Watch

The Abascal Project not only fails to remedy key shortcomings in Mexican labor law, but it weakens existing protections. In doing so, the proposal also violates Mexico’s obligations under international law to protect and promote workers’ human rights. The proposed changes would make it virtually impossible for most workers to exercise their rights to strike, bargain collectively, and join a union of their choosing. The proposal also fails to provide sufficient protections for workers facing pregnancy-based discrimination in hiring.
Additionally, the Abascal Project ignores important recommendations in the 2003 report on Mexico from the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights; key principles of Mexico’s National Human Rights Program, launched by President Vicente Fox in December 2004; and commitments made in a May 2000 ministerial agreement between the United States and Mexico during proceedings under the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC), the labor side agreement to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Arrest of 3 Community Leaders Lawfully Monitoring Police Activity

2005-02-10T15:39:00.000+09:00

CCR Condemns Arrest of 3 Community Leaders Lawfully Monitoring Police Activity
Center For Constitutional Rights

On February 9, 2005 in New York, The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) denounced the arrest of three community organizers by officers of the New York Police Department on the night of February 8th. The arrest occurred when the three individuals were engaged in legal monitoring of police activities as part of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement Copwatch Program.

State of the Union Address

2005-02-08T19:13:00.000+09:00

Talking Points on the Domestic Agenda put forth in the State of the Union Address 2005
By Karen Dolan, Institute for Policy Studies

1. "Tonight with a healthy, growing economy, with more Americans going back to work..." One needs to realize that we are still experiencing a jobless recovery. The unemployment rate is still high at 5.2% and most of the new jobs added to the economy in Bush's tenure pay, on average, about 30% less than the jobs they are replacing. Almost 2 million people have been added to the already artificially low ranks of poverty. Real wages are stagnating or falling. Last year added 2.3 million jobs to the economy, an improvement over his other years in office, but he neglected to mention that 2 million jobs need to be added each year simply to keep up with new entries into the work force. These are not additional jobs.
2. "America's prosperity requires restraining the spending appetite of the federal government." He goes on to say "I will send you a budget that holds the growth of discretionary spending below inflation, makes tax relief permanent,and stays on track to cut the deficit in half by 2009" He then proposes to reduce or cut some 150 government programs and, we know from leaks as recently as this week and as far back as last spring that his 2006 Budget virtually freezes domestic social spending. What we don't hear is the truth that spending on domestic social programs, necessary to the well being of Americans, is only 15% of the budget deficit, while the cost of his tax cuts account for 48% of the deficit and costs of defense, homeland security and other intentional spending account for 37% of the deficit. Freezing, reducing and eliminating funding for domestic programs will not cut our historically high deficit in half by 2009 or 2099. Making permanent these enormously expensive tax cuts to America's wealthiest will not cut the deficit in half by 2009 or 2099. We have to be serious about rolling back tax cuts to the wealthy, cutting overblown defense budget and funding a war in Iraq to the tune of $5 billion a month.
3. "Under the No Child Left Behind Act, standards are higher, test scores are on the rise, and we are closing the achievement gaps for minority students." This is the basis for his push to expand NCLB by pushing for certain standards and test score results in high schools. While there are state in which test scores are on the rise and some where gaps for minority students are indeed closing, there are as many where the opposite is true. There is no study that shows an aggregate improvement, and none that attributes an aggregate improvement to NCLB. The truth is that this act has proven very controversial among states and school districts, forcing mandates on schools without supplying enough funding to fulfill them. Further, the standards are a one-size fits all kind-of "fix" which does not account for differences in populations and needs and has not proven to raise achievement among students.
4. "Justice is distorted and our economy is held back by irresponsible class actions and frivolous asbestos claims." That there are some frivolous lawsuits is not in dispute. But this assertion is wildly overblown. Just where is the evidence that "our economy is held back" by these?? Further, most of the cases prosecuted in these areas are neither irresponsible or frivolous. 100,00 Americans die unnecessarily each year due to medical errors.This assertion by Bush is simply a thinly veiled attempt to protect business and reduce the power of trial lawyers who, on the whole, are large contributors to the Democratic party.
5. "...we must make healthcare more affordable and give families greater access to good coverage and more control over their health decisions." No argument here! Would that this were the outcome. However, one must understand "washingtonese" and realize that the codeword here is "control." In conservative rhetoric, this means privatization. Bush's call for improved technology (provided it doesn't encroach on privacy rights) to reduce medical error and his call for a community health center in every poor county are laudable enough. We'll have to wait for the details. But the golden nugget for Bush of this statement is the "health savings accounts," along the lines of what Health and Human Services secretary Mike Leavitt introduced two days ago with regard to reducing Medicaid costs. Based on the faulty premise that the entitlement program is being abused by state governments, that unnecessary costs are inflated the prices, this call for health savings accounts would pass risks onto individuals and take away some currently guaranteed services for our most vulnerable, especially the disabled. We should instead be looking at the soaring prices of prescription drugs and the absence of sufficient prevention care.
6. "Four years of debate is enough. I urge Congress to pass legislation that makes America more secure and less dependent on foreign energy." Bush here is referring to his stalled energy bill. This bill has many problems including controversial issues that favor business over environment and do not proceed toward renewables or energy independence in sustainable ways. Much of the controversy swirls around the way in which this bill was crafted, through secret participation by energy industry big-wigs, and the content deposited in the bill by them. The proceedings of these meetings Cheney continues to refuse to reveal.
7. "You and I will work together to give this nation a tax code that is pro-growth, easy to understand and fair to all." Here Bush calls for an overhaul of what he calls an "archaic, incoherent federal tax code." Details are completely absent, but a bipartisan committee to study this is announced. Conservatives have historically talked about reforming the tax code in the form of a highly regressive Flat Tax. Additionally, Bush's track record with tax reform has been hugely expensive tax cuts primarily benefiting the wealthy, adding significantly (48%) to our historically high federal deficit.
8. "It is time for an immigration policy that permits temporary guest workers to fill jobs Americans will not take, that rejects Amnesty, that tell us who is entering and leaving our country and that closes the border to drug dealers and terrorists." The estimated 8 million undocumented workers already in this country need job protection, the right to organize, the right to living wages, the right to benefits, in other words, they need amnesty to allow them to receive citizenship. Border protection must include protection of immigrants risking their lives to help their families survive. Immigrants must be allowed job training, health care and education so that they may achieve a decent standard of living and have the opportunity to contribute to society in ways that surpass filling the low-paying jobs that "Americans will not take."
9. "One of America's most important institutions--a symbol of trust between generations--is also in need of wise and effective reform....The system...is headed toward bankruptcy." The most important thing for Americans to know about Social Security is the truth. That it is headed toward bankruptcy is not the truth. Currently, with an overall surplus of $1.8 trillion, the system is on its strongest footing in its 70 year history. In 2018, the year the President uses as ominously "paying out more benefits than it is receiving in revenues," the system will have $ 3.6 trillion surplus from which to continue paying benefits. According the Social Security Trustees, the surplus lasts at least until 2042, 2052 according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. After that point, with no tweaking whatsoever, Social Security will be able to pay out about 75% of benefits, which, if adjusted for inflation, is still higher than the benefit levels received today. The projected shortfall at that time is about 0.4 % of GDP. This is a relatively small amount, one that can be fixed with minor adjustments in the next half a century. To put it in perspective, the cost of Bush's tax cuts thus far has been 2.0% of GDP.Private accounts add enormous cost--(an estimated $4 trillion over the next 40 years, which will come from where?)-- no increase in benefits, and a substitution of a gamble for our current guarantee.The real crisis is the historically high federal deficit, the astronomical costs of health care, and war spending of $5 billion a month for the foreseeable future.
10. "For the good of families, children and society, I support a Constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage." Bush, using a "bait and switch" tactic on his conservative supporters had campaigned on this and then conspicuously dropped it, saying there was not enough support in Congress to get it passed. There still is not, but the anti-gay groups that were a significant portion of his supporters during the election, have threatened not to support his Social Security privatization scheme unless he puts the Constitutional amendment back on the table. So, for the sake of private Social Security accounts, here it is.
11. "Every judicial nominee deserves and up-or-down vote." Historically, the filibuster is a crucial part of the democratic process in the Senate. This device enables a minority to have the chance to have its views expressed. To push for an up-or-down vote is again a code word for the ending of the filibuster that Republicans in the Senate are calling for. One result of the elimination of the filibuster will be the expediting of judicial nominees benefiting the partisans-in-power and quelling dissenting voices from the other side of the aisle.
12. "Our government will continue to support faith-based and community groups that bring hope to harsh places." Unfortunately the privileging of "faith-based" groups in the ordering of this statement reflects a troubling reality. While domestic social spending that would actually help community groups and secular non-profits with drug treatment, health care, education, anti-gang work, funding for many of these programs are being frozen, reduced or eliminated. Faith-based initiatives however, are giving more government money to religious organizations. The danger of these programs is that incentives to follow the religious teachings of those institutions offering support is inherent in this form of charity. This not only violates our Constitutional commitment to the separation of church and state, but tends to put already vulnerable people in often coercive positions in order to receive much needed help.

The CIA and Nazi War Criminals

2005-02-08T18:56:00.000+09:00

The CIA and Nazi War Criminals
National Security Archive

Washington D.C., February 4, 2005 - Today the National Security Archive posted the CIA's secret documentary history of the U.S government's relationship with General Reinhard Gehlen, the German army's intelligence chief for the Eastern Front during World War II. At the end of the war, Gehlen established a close relationship with the U.S. and successfully maintained his intelligence network (it ultimately became the West German BND) even though he employed numerous former Nazis and known war criminals. The use of Gehlen's group, according to the CIA history, Forging an Intelligence Partnership: CIA and the Origins of the BND, 1945-49, was a "double edged sword" that "boosted the Warsaw Pact's propaganda efforts" and "suffered devastating penetrations by the KGB."
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This history was declassified in 2002 as a result of the work of The Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group (IWG) and contains 97 key documents from various agencies.

This posting comes in the wake of public grievances lodged by members of the IWG that the CIA has not fully complied with the mandate of the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act and is continuing to withhold hundreds of thousands of pages of documentation related to their work...
...
"The notion that they [CIA, Army Counterintelligence Corp, Gehlen organization] employed only a few bad apples will not stand up to the new documentation. Some American intelligence officials could not or did not want to see how many German intelligence officials, SS officers, police, or non-German collaborators with the Nazis were compromised or incriminated by their past service...

Israeli military grants impunity when soldiers kill Palestinian civilians

2005-02-08T18:49:00.000+09:00

Israeli military grants impunity when soldiers kill Palestinian civilians
B'tselem

Since the beginning of the al-Aqsa intifada, the IDF has opened only 90 Military Police investigations into Palestinians killed and injured, although soldiers have killed at least 1,694 Palestinians who did not take part in hostilities, including 536 minors. These investigations led to the filing of only 29 indictments. Only one soldier has been convicted of causing the death of a Palestinian. These statistics are not accidental. Rather, they are a result of the IDF’s intolerable disregard for Palestinian life, as reflected in the open-fire regulations which encourage a trigger-happy attitude among soldiers, and its policy to cover up and refrain from investigating the killing of civilians.
Change in the open-fire regulations
With the outbreak of the present Intifada, the IDF has significantly changed the open-fire regulations that apply in the Occupied Territories,. The new regulations permit soldiers to shoot at Palestinians in non-combat situations in which soldiers are not in life-threatening danger. A prime example is the order given in the Gaza Strip to fire at any person who enters what are defined as “danger zones,” which include the areas near the military fence around Gaza, IDF posts, and settlements.
Since the beginning of the current intifada, the IDF has viewed the open-fire regulations applying in the Occupied Territories as “confidential.” The regulations are given to soldiers only during oral briefings, and not in the form of a written booklet, as they were in the previous intifada. The secrecy enables the senior command to avoid responsibility for the killing of innocent persons and leaves the soldiers in the field to bear the criticism. In addition, reliance on oral briefings to issue orders on the rules of engagement is likely to result in distortion, misunderstandings, and hidden messages.

Indonesia: After Tsunami, Acehnese Fear Forced Relocation

2005-02-08T18:36:00.000+09:00

Indonesia: After Tsunami, Acehnese Fear Forced Relocation
Military Role in Relocation Efforts Should Be Minimized
Human Rights Watch

(New York, February 7, 2005) The Indonesian government’s plan in Aceh to register and relocate more than 100,000 people displaced by the tsunami to semi-permanent camps threatens their right to return home, Human Rights Watch and Human Rights First said today. The Indonesian government needs to ensure that any relocation program in the province fully respects the rights of the displaced people.
The Indonesian government announced that as early as February 15 it could begin to move up to a quarter of the 400,000 people displaced by the tsunami in Aceh into semi-permanent, barracks-style shelters.
Human Rights Watch and Human Rights First expressed concern that the new camps could be misused by the military as a way of controlling the population for military purposes unless human rights safeguards are put in place. During years of the brutal armed conflict in the northwestern Sumatra province, the Indonesian military has a record of housing Acehnese displaced by the conflict in secure camps where at times their freedom of movement has been unnecessarily restricted and where serious human rights violations have taken place.

Inflation-adjusted wages fell in U.S. in 2004 despite job growth

2005-02-07T10:49:00.000+09:00

Inflation-adjusted wages fell in 2004 despite job growth
Job Watch, EPI

The good news is that employment grew in 2004; the bad news is that the rate of wage growth fell.
The year 2004 was the first since 1999 that saw job growth in every single month, and it was also the first year since 2000 that the jobless rate declined. Yet the labor market remained relatively slack, and despite the reversal of job losses, there was little labor market pressure on employers to raise wages. Thus... wages grew more slowly in 2004 than in the previous year. In fact, the 2.1% growth rate for nominal hourly earnings in 2004 is the lowest in the history of this wage series, which began in 1964 ...
At the same time, inflation grew more quickly last year, accelerating from 2.3% in 2003 to 2.7% in 2004...
...
Since the start of the recession 46 months ago (March 2001), a negligible 62,000 jobs have been added in the U.S. economy. Private sector jobs are still down by 703,000, a contraction of 0.6%. Both represent the worst job performance since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began collecting monthly jobs data in 1939 (at the end of the Great Depression).

Terror ally reasserts its tyranny

2005-02-07T10:33:00.000+09:00

Uzbekistan: Rights Group Threatened for Alleging Abuse
Clamping Down on Civil Society, Justice Ministry Threatens Human Rights Group
Human Rights Watch

(New York, February 4, 2005)—The Uzbek government threatened an independent human rights group after it reported on possible government abuse of a prisoner who died in custody, Human Rights Watch said today.
The Uzbek Ministry of Justice issued an official warning to Ezgulik, an independent human rights group, for reporting on the January 2 death of Samandar Umarov, and calling for an investigation.